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STEPHEN GRELLET. 



BY 



WILLIAM GUEST, F.G.S., 

Author of '^ Fidelia Fiske" " The Young Man* s Safeguard in the Perils of 

the Age" etc. 



ELIZABETH P. SMITH. 
1903. 






c,6 



&i 



\ 

PREFATORY NOTE. 



^ I ''HE following is the Life of a man who saw the 
-*- last days of the great French Monarchy, shared 
the sufferings of the old French Nobility, traversed 
Europe several times on a mission of Mercy during 
the wars of the First Napoleon, assisted after the peace 
in the development of a new period, was one among 
the first and foremost workers for the abolition of 
slavery, aided in the advancement of the United States 
Republic to its present greatness, and lived on beyond 
the middle of this century. This remarkable life has 
hitherto been little known beyond the circle of the 
Society of Friends. The " Memoirs of the Life and 
Gospel Labors of Stephen Grellet," edited by Benja- 
min Seebohm, are contained in two large and closely 
printed octavo volumes, and have passed through three 
Editions. There is also an interesting and good sized 
volume, called an "Abridged Edition," by R. and C. R. 
Alsop, but written mainly for the use of Friends. 
Messrs. Samuel Harris & Co., have courteousl}' granted 
permission to prepare in a briefer form a iJfc intended 
for the general Christian public. 

W.G. 
Milton-on- Thames, 

By transfer 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. i-^GB 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES, » . . • . I 

CHAPTER H. 

THE YOUNG NOBLE .* PREPARATION FOR HIS MISSION, 6 

CHAPTER HI. 
THE GREAT CHANGE, 21 

CHAPTER IV. 
THE DIVINE CALL, 32 

CHAPTER V. 
DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS, 44 

CHAPTER VI. 
VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME, . . • • 5/ 

CHAPTER VII. 
" INSTANT IN SEASON, OUT OF SEASON," . . 73 

CHAPTER VIII. 
FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN, . . • . 8o 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. PAGK 

SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE, . . . , , 94 

CHAPTER X. 
MISSION TO THE NORTHERN EUROPEAN NATIONS, . II 8 

CHAPTER XI. 
SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA, 1 35 

CHAPTER XII. 
VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE, . . . , 166 

CHAPTER XIII. 
IN SOUTHERN ITALY, I// 

CHAPTER XIV. 
IN ROME, .189 

CHAPTER XV. 

THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE, . . . 20/ 

CHAPTER XVI. 
FAITHFUL WITNESSING, 224 

CHAPTER XVII. 
FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE, . . . . • 232 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
THE CLOSING YEARS, .,,... 259 



CHAPTER I. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES. 

n^HE few introductory remarks of this chapter will 
-L not, it is hoped, be regarded as mere truisms," 
but rather as the statement of principles of which we 
need in this age to be reminded. 

The latter part of the third quarter of this century 
brought into full manifestation two totally opposite 
schools of opinion. On the one side were eminent 
and distinguished students of biology, physics, and 
philosophy, who having started on their investigations 
with the principle that the supernatural is not the field 
for human inquiries, have apparently come to admit 
design without a designer, to teach a sublime scheme 
of evolution which has proceeded, not with a presiding 
will, but on self acting laws, and have thus, by a will- 
ing dismissal of the Creator, turned the faces of not 
a few in this generation away from the light, so that 
they confront only negations and ever deepening dark- 
ness. Unrpeakably melancholy has this become to a 
younger race of scientific inquirers, while in lower 
levels of society the disbelief has filtered as a baleful 
poison of vice, license and corruption. On the other 
hand, there is a vast multitude of rare cultured and 
earnest Christian believers who, compelled to note in 

(1) 



2 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

the world and in human history indubitable proofs of 
the presence and temptations of the spirit of evil, 
and at the same time irrefutable evidences of the 
presence among men of a Saviour, are prepared for a 
cordial acceptance of the profound spirituality of the 
New Testament, and for a self-less and saintly conse- 
cration to the well-being of the human race. The 
latter class have happily no reason to be ashamed of 
their fellow-workers, and of the results of their lives. 
To confirm their faith in the mission of the Comforter, 
and in His abiding guidance, is the main end in offer- 
ing this life of Stephen Grellet. 

An intelligent reader who should come for the first 
time to the pages of the New Testament would be im- 
pressed by the emphatic, tender, and unambiguous 
manner in which Christ promised the abiding presence 
among men of the Spirit of grace and truth. 

The Spirit was to " convince " the world. Until the 
end of the age He was to remain with the race for 
whom the Son of God had offered the great expiation. 
Men in a moral graveyard of death would " hear His 
voice and live." While the grace would be for all 
men, the effectual operation would be in His hands to 
whom the eternal Father had ** given authority to 
execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man " 
(John V, 27). 

Endowed by the Spirit, Christ's servants were to do 
"greater works " than the Master's. The acts of His 
incarnation specially bore the mark of being works on 
nature. The '' greater works " of His disciples were 
to be moral and spiritual. 



GUIDING PRINCIPLES. 3 

There was, however, to be a condition — the entire 
and cordial acceptance of the Divine will. His fol- 
lowers were to " abide " in fellowship of heart and 
purpose with their ascended Lord. Only thus could 
they bear this " abundant fruit." As they willed and 
planned and acted with Him, they might " ask what 
they would, and it should be done unto them." Thus 
would they be " vessels meet for the Master's use," 
ready for every emergency and for every demand of 
their Lord in the way of service and of testimony. 

In reading such lives as those of St. Paul, of St. 
Bernard, of Boniface, of Francis de Sales, of Fletcher, 
of Bramwell, and McCheyne, we find these conditions 
fulfilled. We shall note the same habitual waiting 
upon Christ, the same sympathy with Him, and the 
" hearkening to His word," in the apostolic life of 
Stephen Grellet. We shall see that after this calm 
and prolonged looking unto the Lord he became a 
witness for Him during a terrific crisis of European 
history ; and that over the two hemispheres he bore a 
testimony adapted, with marvellous wisdom, alike to 
dwellers in palaces and in slaves' huts, to the inmates 
of ecclesiastical mansions and common jails, and yet 
none the less suited to the periodic meetings of Friends 
and to large assemblies of Roman Catholics and 
Protestants in Europe and America. 

By the twofold watching for heavenly direction — 
the inward voice and external providences — we shall, 
in following the narrative, observe how a humble, but 
not ungifted man, seldom testified in any one circle, 
and over not less than sixty years, without witnessing 



4 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

those " greater works " of moral awakening and of 
spiritual revival of which the Lord Jesus spake. 

This also we shall learn, and the lesson is not un- 
needed in the present time. The subject of this 
memoir was like " the Servant of Jehovah," of whom 
it was predicted — " He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor 
cause His voice to be heard in the streets." By the 
craving for crowds and numbers, by the placard sensa- 
tion and advertisement, by mechanical methods for 
revival services, we may be fulfilling the Lord's will. 
But by relying on these methods, and by the inflexible 
fore-arrangements for them, we may unconsciously be 
out of harmony with the Spirit's guidance, and out 
of sympathy with Him who gave His sublime teaching 
on spiritual worship to one solitary woman ; who 
" opened the Scriptures," during several hours on the 
day of His resurrection, to two disciples, both obscure, 
and the name of one of whom we do not even know; 
and who directed the evangelist Philip to make a long 
journey in order to relieve the solicitudes and guide 
into the way of peace one inquiring man. 

The life of Stephen Grellet will teach one other 
important lesson. In reading the history of Jesus we 
could hardly conceive of His laying out His plans at 
the beginning of a week, and resolving that this should 
be done on the first day, that and the other on the 
days following. He lived in such unity with God's 
providence that the path of service was constantly 
made plain as He came up to it. In like manner will 
'this guidance be apparent as we follow the course of 
the subject of this memoir. He travelled over Europe 



GUIDING PRINCIPLES. 5 

four times, made long journeys in the work of the 
ministry and of benevolence in America, and did all 
this under an impulse and monition that never failed 
him. There was a wonderful timeliness and a natural 
but beautiful sequence in his visits and intercourse 
with men. He believed that he should be taught of 
God on every- new emergency, and it was so. To 
many servants of Christ who in our time desire to live 
this life of faith, this record of a long but calmly con- 
secrated and most useful life may give appropriate 
encouragement and direction. 

We may then dismiss the apprehension that the 
world has lost its youth, and that its fire? are dying 
out. The Spirit of God can never be old. While He 
is the abiding witness for Christ in the world there 
will always be a substantial identity in the Christian 
confessions, and always be guidance and usefulness 
shed over those who believe and teach that Eternal 
Love is in every age yearning to bless and save a 
fallen and tempted race. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE YOUNG NOBLE: TEE PREPARATION FOR HIS 

MISSION. 

ETIENNE DE GRELLET, afterwards, when he 
became a Friend, called Stephen Grellet, was 
born on November 2d, 1773, in France, in the city of 
Limoges, capital of the modern department of Haute 
Vienne, and situated in the beautiful district of Limou- 
sin. He was the fifth child of Gabriel Marc Antoine 
de Grellet and of his wife Susanne de Senamaud. 

His parents were wealthy, and ranked high among 
the nobility of that district. During Etienne's child- 
hood, his father, Gabriel de Grellet, resided on his 
patrimonial estate. He was owner of extensive por- 
celain manufactories in the neighborhood of Limoges, 
as well as proprietor of some iron works. For some 
years he was comptroller of the Mint, and, at one 
time, formed part of the household of Louis XVI. 
As the intimate friend and counsellor of the king, he 
was accustomed to attend service with him in his 
private chapel. A title was conferred upon him for 
the benefits he had rendered to his country, especially 
by the introduction of the manufacture of superior 
porcelain ware. His porcelain works were afterwards 
purchased by the king, just before the French Revo- 
lution ; but, on account of that event, never paid for. 

(6) 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 7 

The ancestors of the mother of Etienne de Grellet 
had for many generations resided at Limoges. They 
were all persons holding high positions in society. 
On both sides Grellet's parents were Roman Catholics. 
Two of his aunts retired from the world to seek the 
holier life of the *' religieuse." It is all but certain 
that such an example would make a strong impression 
on the affectionate and aspiring mind of their nephew. 
The high moral bearing of his father, and the uniform 
kindness of his home, had also their influence over 
the tender and susceptible boy. His direct religious 
advantages were, however, few. He tells us : " My 
parents were desirous to give their children such an 
education as should make them accomplished in the 
eyes of the world ; but, though trained in the precepts 
of a high-toned morality, they received little direct 
religious instruction. The simple truths of Holy 
Scripture were not the food of their early childhood, — 
the * principles of the doctrine of Christ' were not 
taught them, and they had scarcely 'so much as heard 
whether there be any Holy Ghost' " 

A quick susceptibility to religious impressions 
seems, nevertheless, to have marked the youthful days 
of Etienne de Grellet, and early indications of the 
work of Divine grace upon his heart were not wanting. 
When quite a child, his thoughts on the omnipotence 
of the Divine Being, the Creator of all things, so 
deeply affected him, that he never afterwards lost the 
recollection. At the early age of five or six, the 
efficacy of prayer to an omnipresent and omniscient 
God was remarkably taught him. His juvenile powers 



8 STEPUEN GRELLET. 

had been overtasked by a long Latin exercise ; he 
was quite disheartened. Alone, in his chamber, he 
looked abroad upon the glories of the external world, 
and remembered that it was God who had created 
them all. The thought arose in his heart — " Cannot 
the same God give me memory also ? " He knelt 
down at the foot of his bed, and poured out his soul 
in prayer to the Lord. On re-perusing his lesson, he 
found himself master of it; and henceforward he was 
able to acquire learning with increased facility. Even 
in his old age he could look back to " happy days,'* 
when his childish heart was deeply affected, and re- 
member, " with grateful emotion," the places in his 
father's house, where, " on his knees, with his eyes 
flowing with tears, he had poured forth his supplica- 
tions unto God." Having early learnt to repeat the 
Lord's Prayer, he exclaims, " Oh, how was my heart 
contrited, while uttering the words, 'Our Father, who 
art in heaven.' " To be permitted thus to look up to 
his God, to call Him Father, and to consider himself 
as His child, filled his young soul with the tenderness 
of reverential awe. 

To those who believe that (so far as we know) the 
chief object of Eternal Love is man, and that for 
man's sake God raises up His chosen witnesses in 
every age, it will be readily admitted that Divine love 
was educating Etienne de Grellet for the place he was 
to fill in a time of trouble such as Europe had not 
previously known. Happily, schools and colleges in 
France were no longer under the sway of the Jesuits. 
Young Etienne was sent to the University of the 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 9 

Oratorians at Lyons. It was a well-ordered institution. 
There were, with the professors and officers of the 
establishment, about a thousand inmates. The reli- 
gious principles were those of the Jansenists. " Cor- 
ruption and levity" were repressed, order and discipline 
were carefully maintained, and the literary advantages 
were of a high and varied nature. 

Etienne was endowed with rare capacities for learn- 
ing. He had, moreover, a graceful address, and 
assiduously cultivated suavity and self-reliance. He 
rose rapidly in the university, and obtained advanced 
prizes for his classical acquisitions. It was at this time 
that he laid the foundation of that fortitude, skill in 
languages, and general knowledge, which fitted him 
so singularly for moving with such freedom and 
ascendancy among all classes of society. It was at 
this period also that, to use his own words, he was 
again " favored with the Lord's gracious visitations 
to his soul." To this he afterwards gratefully refers 
when, commemorating the Divine goodness, he ex- 
claims : " Oh, the heart-meltings I have known — 
fervent were some of the prayers I then put up, when 
on my knees, my cheeks were bedewed with tears. 

"As we were educated," he continues, *'by Roman 
Catholics, and in their principles, we were required to 
confess once in every month. I had chosen for my 
confessor one whom I thought to be a pious and 
conscientious man ; and, as I could not understand 
how it was possible for a ina7i to forgive my sins, I 
asked him what he could say to satisfy my mind on 
that point, for I considered that God alone could for- 



10 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

give sins ; a doctrine, however, which I had never heard 
of. He, seeing further than many other priests, told 
me that he considered himself invested with such 
authority, only so far as that, if I was sincere, and truly 
penitent in the sight of God, he was the instrument 
through whom information was given me that my sins 
were forgiven. This rational answer gained him much 
of my confidence and respect. He bestowed a fatherly 
care upon me. 

" From my earliest days, there was that in me which 
would not allow me implicitly to believe the various 
doctrines I was taught. Though I was told that they 
were mysteries which I was not to seek to see into, 
yet my reasoning faculties brought me to the root of 
the matter; from created objects to the Creator, from 
time to eternity." 

Before leaving the university he received confirma- 
tion according to the rites of the Roman Catholic 
church, and joined in participating in the sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper. But he grew doubtful of what 
Roman bishops and priests could do for him. 

Among what he termed " religiotts openings " at 
Lyons, one left a deep impression ; and the remem- 
brance of it helped to sustain his spirit under many 
subsequent exercises and trials. 

*' I thought I saw," he says, " a large company of 
persons, or rather purified spirits, on one of those float- 
ing vessels which they have at Lyons, on the Rhone, 
occupied by washerwomen. They were washing linen. 
I wondered to see what beating and pounding there 
was upon it, but how beautifully white it came out of 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 11 

their hands. I was told I could not enter God's king- 
dom until I underwent such an operation, — -that unless 
I was thus washed and made white, I could have no 
part in the dear Son of God. For weeks I was ab- 
sorbed in the consideration of the subject — the washing 
of regeneration. I had never heard of such things 
before, and I greatly wondered that, having been bap- 
tized with water, and having also received what they 
call the sacrament of confirmation, I should have to 
pass through such a purification ; for I had never read 
or heard any one speak of such a baptism." 

Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, said, *' It is not learning or 
genius that makes the truly effective man, but moral 
thoughtfulness." The thoughts of his heart, of which 
the foregoing vision was the outgrowth, led Etienne 
to feel astonished that, spite of ceremonies, confirma- 
tions, sacraments, and rites of priests, his heart still 
was unchanged, his conscience and sense of sin unre- 
lieved, and his evil propensities still unsubdued. As 
might therefore have been expected, after leaving the 
university, he " sought his happiness in the world's 
delights," gave full sway to his inclinations, and lost 
his earlier religious convictions. Nevertheless, the 
Holy Spirit of Christ was lovingly drawing him on. 
He records : '^ I sought after happiness in the world, 
I expected to find it. I went in pursuit of it from one 
party of pleasure to another ; but I did not find it, 
and I wondered that the name of pleasure could be 
given to anything of the kind." This is remarkable 
language for a youth, and deeply interesting is it to 
witness that great and memorable crisis in the history 



12 STErnEN GRELLET. 

of a soul, of which myriads of saved ones bear witness, 
when the law oi purity is consented to that it is good, 
but another law in the members wars against this law 
of the mind, and the struggling spirit cries out, "Who 
shall deliver me from the body of this death ? " 

Deliverance was to come to Eticnne de Grellet 
through a baptism of fire and a storm of terrors and 
desolation. The French Revolution of 1789 broke 
out ; that time of horrors, that awful nemesis of wrong. 
The De Grellets belonged to the nobility of France, 
on whom the chastisement had chiefly to fall ; and, 
like all such tribulations, it fell upon the innocent with 
the guilty. The haughtiness of the nobles forbade all 
compromise with the popular party. A hundred 
thousand of the most wealthy and influential land- 
owners fled their country, to unite with the armies of 
the continental powers in bringing about a counter 
revolution. Etienne, with his brothers, joined the 
fugitives, and proceeded to unite with the royalists. 
He left his father, and his father's house, and never 
saw them again. At Mont Midi, on the way to 
Germany, he thus records a rencontre : " I shudder 
when I remember the state of insensibility I was in. 
I was not the least moved when surrounded by people 
and soldiers, who lavished their abuse upon us, and 
threatened to hang me to the lamp-post. I coolly stood 
by, my hands in my pockets, being provided with three 
pairs of pistols, two of which were double-barrelled. 
I concluded to wait to see what they would do, and 
resolved, after destroying as many of them as I could, 
to take my own life with the last. No thought of 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 13 

eternity was then before me, no sense of remembrance 
that there is a God." 

Probably his coolness, by God's good care, pre- 
served him from suffering or doing injury. 

The rendezvous of the nobility was Coblentz, whither 
the French princes had fled. There tlie winter and 
spring of 1 79 1-2 were spent in preparations for the 
approaching campaign in France. 

" Everything about me," says Etienne, " and the 
very nature of the work I was engaged in, was highly 
calculated to destroy every fibre remaining of those 
tender impressions I had heretofore received ; but my 
gracious Lord did not wholly forsake me. I was pre- 
served from those gross evils that are too generally 
attendant on an army. But oh, the height of my 
infatuation ! I attributed my preservation to my own 
reasoning powers ; for I viewed the vices to which my 
companions were addicted in the same light as, a little 
before, I had done jovial parties for dancing, etc., etc.; 
concluding that what degrades the man can yield him 
neither true comfort nor pleasure. Divine light would, 
nevertheless, at seasons, pierce into the inmost recesses 
of my benighted heart. I was fond of solitude, and 
had many retired walks through the woods and over 
the hills. I delighted to visit the deserted hermitages 
which formerly abounded on the Rhine. I envied 
such a life of retirement and of purity. I, too, looked 
forward wistfully to such a life ; but I saw also that 
unless I could leave behind me my earthly- mindedness, 
my pride, vanity, and every carnal propensity, an 
outward solitude could afford me no shelter." 



14 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

In the summer of 1792 young Grellet was in the 
King's Horse Guards. Accompanied by the Austrians 
and Prussians, the army entered France. But disas- 
ters came, and the forces were soon after disbanded. It 
was not the will of God to save France from the fiery 
deluge which was to follow. Etienne had stood in 
battle array. He had seen many falling around him. 
But he often afterwards, with peculiar thankfulness to 
the good providence of God, reverts to the fact that he 
was in a corps of reserved troops, and was preserved 
from the shedding of the blood of his countrymen. 

After the retreat of the princes* army, the young 
De Grellets became prisoners of war, and were ordered 
to be shot. Again God in mercy preserved Etienne. 
Just as the time for the execution of the sentence had 
come, a commotion arose in the hostile army, and he 
and his brothers escaped, first to Brussels, and thence 
reached Holland in safety. In Amsterdam they met 
with friends. Their hearts were, however, drawn to 
their beloved parents, who were in the midst of the 
vicissitudes of the Revolution. But to return to them 
as young soldiers of the King's Guards would ag- 
gravate instead of alleviating their trials. Danger 
threatened on every side. Etienne and one of his 
brothers resolved to go to South America. Having 
obtained a passage on board a ship bound for De- 
merara, they arrived there, January, 1793. 

That visit to a slave colony was a part of the train- 
ing Etienne de Grellet was to have to educate him for 
his subsequent mission, and his witness in England 
and in the United States, 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 15 

There have been few brighter or more honored 
chapters in human history than the record of the 
benevolent labors of the Friends on behalf of slaves, 
and De Grellet was to do much to sustain among 
them abolitionist principles. 

The two brothers were provided with letters of in- 
troduction from their friends in Holland to some of 
the principal planters, who received them with much 
hospitality. Mercantile pursuits soon occupied their 
attention, and during a residence of two years in the 
colony, which then belonged to Holland, they had an 
opportunity of seeing much of the horrors of slavery, 
and of becoming intimately acquainted with the ruin- 
ous effects of the iniquitous system, both upon the 
colored and the white population. They were much 
shocked, on their first arrival in the colony, in observ- 
ing the degraded condition of the miserable descend- 
ants of the African race, whose almost naked bodies 
bore evident marks of the cruelty of their oppressors, 
and whose backs were frequently covered with large 
scars, left by the lash of the whip ; some still bleeding 
under the strokes recently inflicted, had cayenne 
pepper and salt rubbed into their wounds, to increase 
their suffering. Such was the impression made upon 
Etienne by the scenes of cruelty and anguish he 
witnessed, that, many years after, the sound of a whip 
in the street would " chill his blood," in the remem- 
brance of the agony of the poor slaves ; and he " felt 
convinced that there was no excess of wickedness 
and malice of which a slaveholder, or driver, might 
not be guilty." 



16 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

" Dcmerara," he remarks, " was a place of much 
dissipation. I do not recollect, during the whole 
time I was there, that I saw anything, in any one, that 
indicated a feeling of religious sensibility There was 
no place of worship ; no priest of any kind, except 
one who had been there a few years, who was a disso- 
lute, drunken man. It was of the Lord's mercy that I, 
and the whole land, were not destroyed like Sodom 
and Gomorrah. At that time, the prince of the power 
of the air, who rules in the hearts of the children of 
disobedience, had obtained such a victory over me, 
that I had become one of the number of those infatu- 
ated ones who call good evil, and evil good, — dark- 
ness light, and light darkness, — to so daring a pitch 
as to say. There is no God ! I not only thought that 
there was no God, and consequently no religion, that 
all the profession of it was but priestcraft, invention, 
and deceit, but so plausibly had I compassed myself 
with sparks of my own kindling, that I thought I saw 
a way to steer my own course. I had become a 
complete disciple of Voltaire, and writers of that 
class. 

" How low, how degraded, did I see man to be ! 
And yet I could dare to think I had reached to that 
correctness of reasoning, that would enable me to rise 
from that sink of corruption, and live a virtuous life, — 
even concluding that it was this philosophy that pre- 
served me from giving way to the vices which flowed 
like a torrent about me. This was my situation when 
the Lord Himself interfered to release me from that 
land, and to open a way for my emancipation from a 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 17 

bondage far more to be dreaded than that of the poor 
slaves whom I commiserated." 

A rumor, apparently well sustained, reached Dem- 
erara in the spring of 1795, that the French were 
coming to take possession of the colony. A fleet 
was seen approaching. The two brothers resolved to 
leave immediately, and they took passage forthwith 
m an American trading vessel which was on the point 
of sailing. As they were leaving, they saw the fleet 
approaching the harbor of Demerara. Not until their 
arrival in America did they learn that the alarming 
rumor was incorrect. The fleet had come from En- 
gland. 

Mistakes are frequently overruled to serve the pur- 
poses of God. Columbus meant to find a short way 
to India and Cathay, and he revealed a new world 
by a "splendid blunder." It is well to see special 
providences ; it is better to see that all events are a 
chain of providence. Young Grellet regarded it as a 
circumstance that '' stood prominent in the days of 
his pilgrimage," that he left Demerara. The brothers' 
prospects in mercantile pursuits were bright. Had 
they found earlier that the English vessels had come 
to establish, in the place of anarchy and maladministra- 
tion, an equitable British rule, it is little likely they 
would have left the colony. 

A series of providential deliverances followed them. 
The ship, on her way to America, was chased by a 
privateer off Martinique. But the boats of the privateer 
could not be lowered because of the violence of the 
storm. Off the island of San Domingo the vessel oi3 



*8 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

which the brothers sailed was driven amidst sunken 
recks; taking the crew for enemies, the islanders 
po'nted their cannon on them. In the extremity of 
their strait between the rocks and the cannon, they 
unexpectedly found a narrow channel of escape. Some 
days after, their vessel took fire; but when matters 
appeared hopeless, the flames were restrained. Off 
the New Jersey shore a thick fog brought the ship 
into a most critical position ; in a few minutes all on 
board would have perished ; for a brief moment the 
fog cleared, to show the master where the vessel was. 

De Grellet remarks : " Thus did Divine Providence 
repeatedly interfere, and prevent my sinking into 
everlasting misery. But such was the obduracy of 
my heart, all that time, that I do not recollect to have 
felt any emotion of gratitude." 

Probably every life would bear such evidences of a 
controlling Hand if it were carefully watched. The 
accidents that happen to men occur mostly because, 
in Divine wisdom, the errors and faults of men are 
intended to be for our warning. By never favoring 
incompetence and carelessness God educates His 
creatures. 

" O Father-eye, that hath so truly watched, 
O Father-hand, that hath so gently led, 
O Father-heart, that by my prayer is touched. 
That loved me first when I was cold and dead : 

Still do Thou lead me on with faithful care 
The narrow path to heaven where I would go, 

And train me for the life that waits me there 

Alike through love and loss, through weal and woe." 



THE YOUNG NOBLE. 19 

Arrived in America, the brothers first took up their 
abode on Long Island, and resolved to wait until they 
might obtain tidings of their parents, towards whom 
the hearts of the fugitives went out in ceaseless 
solicitude. Whether it would be safe to return to 
them, and to brave the chaos of conflict and enmities 
on which France had entered, or to remain in the 
United States, was now their anxious inquiry. Mean- 
while, they settled for the summer of 1795 at Newtown. 
Their manners and position gave them access to the 
best society of the place. On taking leave of their 
father, he had given them a maxim, to choose the 
company of " their seniors in age, and their superiors 
in ability." This counsel from one whom they ever 
regarded with the deepest reverence and affection was 
not without its advantages. In Newtown they were 
received as visitors into the well-ordered family of an 
officer of rank who had served in the British army. 
His wife was connected by lineage with Franklin, who 
had signed the Declaration of Independence. The 
family was one of culture and of refined manners. 
There the two unfortunate but engaging strangers 
found often a congenial home. At this time the 
brothers had little knowledge of the English language, 
and Miss Corsa, the daughter of the family, who was 
accustomed to converse with them in French, recom- 
mended the study of the works of William Penn, the 
illustrious founder of the State of Pennsylvania. 
Etienne de Grellet, regarding Penn as a statesman 
and politician, began to translate, with a view to obtain 
a better acquaintance with the English language, the 



20 STErilEN GRELLET. 

works of the great Quaker. It was a study pregnant 
with important issues, and formed a crisis in Etienne's 
history. He was at that time twenty-one years of 
age, and, under the full sway of skeptical opinions, 
was without one religious impression. But the time 
had arrived when his earlier cries and supplications 
for light and guidance from the Hearer of prayer 
were to receive an answer. The vicissitudes the 
young noble had passed through had given him a 
knowledge of men and of the times, and now, after 
the preparation, the chosen vessel was to be summoned 
to his work. 

The author of this Life of De Grellet may be per- 
mitted to say that an extended and careful observation 
has taught him that when the pointings of the young 
are turned Christward, although early impressions 
may seem evanescent, the first direction of the nature 
returns after many days. He has seen also that the 
disparagement of early piety, which is the fashion 
with some persons, has been shown afterwards, in a 
young person's history, to have been a terrible and 
most awful mistake. The right course is by every 
method, and by a religious atmosphere of home or 
school, to develop reliance on a Divine arm and on a 
Divine wisdom, and to form that clinging of faith 
which is natural to a child. Where there is a rich 
nature there will, with such an experience, be emotion. 
To disparage the emotion in such a case will be to 
prevent or kill the faith. The child-emotion will be 
corrected by time; the faith, though it may seem to 
falter, will through God's grace assert itself again. 



CHAPTER III 

THE GREAT CHANGE. 

RARELY was the call louder and clearer than 
that in this age to all Christian teachers to 
assert in the most pronounced and decided manner 
the necessity and nature of true conversion to God. 
The followers of Jesus Christ find themselves sur- 
rounded by proud reasonings, an unbelieving skepti- 
cism, and a latitudinarian mingling of error and truth. 
Upon the understanding and acceptance of the teaching 
of Christ, with respect to the regeneration of a human 
soul, depend alike the stability of the church and the 
eternal well-being of individuals. What, then, is this 
great change which is called conversion ? It is an 
inward revelation to the human spirit of the evil of 
sin, and the utterly lost state of the sinner. It is the 
birth into an experience of the profound pity of God, 
the Father of the spirits of all flesh, who strives with 
the sinner to win him to a chosen obedience to Him- 
self It is, under the teaching of the blessed Spirit, 
the soul's apprehension of the surpassing and trans- 
cendent love of God, who has set forth Christ Jesus 
as a propitiation for sin, for the purpose of making 
manifest His righteousness in the forgiveness of sin, 

and of satisfying the conscience of the sinner. It is 

(21) 



22 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

the new motive that thus comes into the life, the 
pointings of the new nature Godwards, and the con- 
secration of the whole being to a loving acceptance 
of the will of our Father in heaven. This has been 
the mark of all the illustrious servants of God in the 
bygone times, and no man or woman, even in the 
lowliest sphere, has done any really effective and per- 
manent service in turning men unto righteousness, 
who has been ignorant of this great spiritual change 
and renovation. 

We ask a careful noting of the record of Etienne de 
Grellet's life at this time. He was one of the most 
humble and truthful of men. He says, at the beginning 
of his narrative : " In now attempting to give some 
small account of the merciful dealings of the Lord 
with me, for my near relatives and friends, it is very 
far from my desire to perpetuate my memory to 
another generation ; but rather, with an eye to the 
advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, to en- 
courage my fellow-pilgrims, whilst they may mark 
some of their own footsteps in the path which I have 
trodden from my youth up, to lift up their heads in 
hope ; for, in proportion as the tribulations of the 
gospel have abounded, so its consolations have much 
more abounded by Christ. My soul magnifies the 
Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour for 
He has done great things for His servant ! " 

After the manner of the Friends, Etienne dropped 
the " de " before his name, and afterwards adopted an 
English appellation. From this time, therefore, he 
will be designated by the name he bears through the 



THE GREAT CHANGE 2S 

fwo hemispheres — Stephen Grellet, It Is impossible 
tn describe his conversion in a better way than he 
hin^self has done. He was still in his twenty-second 
year. 

"Through adorable mercy, the visitation of the 
Lord was now again extended towards me, by the 
immediate openings of the Divine light on my soul. 
One evening as I was walking in the fields alone, my 
mind being under no kind of religious concern, or in 
the least excited by anything I had heard or thought 
of, I was suddenly arrested by what seemed to be an 
awful voice proclaiming the words * Eternity ! Eternity ! 
Eternity ! ' It reached my w^r/ soul, — my whole man 
shook, — it brought me, like Saul, to the ground. 
The great depravity and sinfulness of my heart were 
set open before me, and the gulf of everlasting destruc- 
tion to which I was verging. I was made bitterly to 
cry out, ^ If there is no God, doubtless there is a hell.' 
I found myself In the midst of it. For a long time it 
seemed as if the thundering proclamation was yet 
heard. After that I remained almost whole days and 
nights, exercised in prayer that the Lord would have 
mercy upon me, expecting that He would give me 
some evidence that He had heard my supplication. 
But for this I was looking to some outward mani- 
festation, my expectation being entire y of that nature. 

" I now took up again the works of William Penn, 
and opened upon ' No Cross, no Crown.' The title- 
reached my heart. I proceeded to read with the help 
of my dictionary, having to look for the meaning of 
nearly every word. I read It twice through in this 



24 STEPHEN GRELLBT, 

manner. I had never met with anything of the kind; 
neither had I felt the Divine witness in me operating 
so powerfully before. 

" I now withdrew from company, and spent most of 
my. time in retirement, and in silent waiting upon 
God. I began to read the English Bible, with the aid 
of my dictionary, for I had not one in French. I was 
much of a stranger to the inspired records. I had 
not even seen them before, that I remember ; what I 
had heard of any part of their contents, was only 
detached portions of Prayer Books. 

" Whilst the fallow ground of my heart was thus 
preparing, my brother and myself, being one day at 
Colonel Corsa's, heard that a meeting for Divine 
worship was appointed to be held next day in the 
Friends' Meeting House, by two English women on 
a religious visit to this land, to which we were invited. 
We felt inclined to go. The Friends were Deborah 
Darby and Rebecca Young. The sight of them 
brought solemn feelings over me ; but I soon forgot 
the servants, and all things around me ; for in an in- 
ward silent frame of mind, seeking for the Divine 
presence, I was favored to find in me what I had so 
long, and with so many tears, sought for without me. 
My brother, who sat beside me, and to whom the 
silence, in which the forepart of the meeting was held, 
was irksome, repeatedly whispered to me, ' Let us go 
away.' But I felt the Lord's power in such a manner, 
that my inner man was prostrated before my blessed 
Redeemer. A secret joy filled me, in that I had 
found Him after whom my soul had longed. I was 



THE GREAT CHANGE ^5 

as one nailed to my seat. Shortly after, one or two 
men Friends in the ministry spoke, but I could under- 
stand very little of what they said. After them, the 
two English visitors spoke also ; but I was so gathered 
in the temple of my heart before God, that I was 
wholly absorbed with what was passing there. Thus 
had the Lord opened my heart to seek Him where 
He is to be found. 

" My brother and myself were invited to dine in the 
company of these Friends, at Colonel Corsa's. There 
was a religious opportunity after dinner, in which 
several communications were made. I could hardly 
understand a word of what was said, but as Deborah 
Darby began to address my brother and myself, it 
seemed as if the Lord opened my outward ear, and 
my heart. Her words partook of the efficacy of that 
' word ' which is ' quick and powerful, and sharper 
than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the 
dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints 
and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and 
intents of the heart.' She seemed like one reading 
the pages of my heart, with clearness describing how 
it had been, and how it was with me. I was like 
Lydia ; my heart was opened ; I felt the power of 
Him who hath the key of David. No strength to 
withstand the Divine visitation was left in me. Oh, 
what sweetness did I then feel ! It was indeed a 
memorable day. I was like one introduced into a 
new world; the creation and all things around me 
bore a different aspect, — my heart glowed with love 
to all. The awfulness of that day of God's visitation 



26 STErilEN GRELLET. 

can never cease to be remembered with peculiar 
interest and gratitude, as long as I have the use of my 
mental faculties. I have been as one plucked from 
the burning, rescued from the brink of a horrible pit. 
Oh, how can the extent of the Lord's love, mercy, 
pity, and tender compassion be fathomed ! " 

Once, when speaking with a lady respecting one of 
the most eminent and distinguished workers in this 
generation, I asked the history of her conversion. 
The reply was : " She was spoken to when a young 
girl by a lady who was walking so near to God that 
her words were not permitted to fall to the ground." 
How much this was the case with the Quakeress who 
spoke to young Grellet at the officer's table will be 
obvious. Quakerism was at that time exposed to 
much of misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and 
obloquy. For a brief time, therefore, Stephen Grellet 
hesitated to unite with the Friends. Others dissuaded 
him. But his generous nature inclined him to those 
who had taken such interest in his religious welfare, 
and, his intrepidity of character overcoming his 
scruples, he felt it his duty to join with Friends in 
their meetings for Divine worship. It was well it was 
so. It was unquestionably a part of the teaching of 
the Lord. In no other communion could he at that 
time have exercised his gifts as a layman, or been 
introduced to circles of usefulness so wide and varied. 

Times have happily changed since then. Laymen 
are now among the most powerful pleaders on behalf 
of the gospel. But at the close of the last century, 
the Methodists excepted, it was among Friends chiefly 



THE GREAT CHAXGE. 27 

that there was that large freedom for Christian testi- 
mony which was the sign of the apostohc times, and 
is so grandly the characteristic of the present age. 
The young convert says : — 

" I was brought to endure the world's reproaches, 
or anjiihing it might be suffered to inflict. I continued 
diligently to attend meetings, which were held in 
silence. Very few persons assembled there, and I had 
no communication with them at all for some time. I 
have frequently considered since, that it was a favor 
that my lot was cast in a place where I had no out- 
ward dependence to lean upon. In religious meetings, 
as well as out of them, my single concern was to feel 
after the influences of the Holy Spirit in my own 
heart. As my acquaintance with these increased, so 
did my exercises. ^ly heart was fitly compared to 
the ground covered with thorns and briers, and even 
sturdy oaks and tall cedars. Oh, how many things 
had to be removed out of the way, to give room for 
the heavenly seed to grow ! The axe of God's power 
was lifted up against the root of the corrupt tree. As 
wave follows wave, so did my exercises. Yet I must 
testify of the Lord's unspeakable love extended 
towards me ; it was great indeed. The sense of it 
was so much with me, tfiat I do not know whether 
tears of joy and gratitude have not flowed as plenti- 
fully as those of grief, which latter have not been few." 

Pause for a moment to note the above words : " It 
was a favor that my lot was cast in a place where I 
had no outward dependence to lean upon." Is there 
not a possibility of the interior life being impoverished 



2g STEPnEN GRELLET. 

by a too ready reliance upon external aids, and depen- 
dence upon human support and counsel ? Peace, rest, 
and power can only be found as the soul of a mortal 
is brought into a real communion and fellowship with 
the Saviour. There must be, as in Stephen Grellet's 
case, the grateful appropriation at the foot of the cross 
of the Redeemer's atonement, and the adoring personal 
confidence, " I know whom I have believed." The 
guidance of an experienced teacher is most valuable, 
but it may be over-rated. The Lord Jesus allowed 
Saul of Tarsus to be three days alone in his chamber 
at Damascus before He sent to him Ananias. The 
history of Paul would probably not have been the 
same had Ananias been with him through those three 
days. Oh, the strength there is in the purpose: "My 
soul, wait thou oidy upon God, for my expectation is 
from Him ! " 

One other remark is necessary after the record of 
the history of this young noble's conversion. It might 
seem as if he sought peace in his *' inward silent frame 
of mind." But this would be a misconception of his 
meaning ; and it is most important to realize that the 
gracious language of God, is, " Look unto Me and be 
ye saved, all the ends of the earth." " Behold the 
Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world." 

Let us hear this young man concerning another 
meeting he attended. 

" Very soon after sitting down, great was the awful- 
ness and reverence that came upon me. It was 
succeeded by such a view and sense of my sinful life, 
that I was like one crushed under the millstones. My 



THE GREAT CHANGE. 29 

misery was great; my cry was not unlike that of 
Isaiah, ' Woe is me for I am undone !' But how can I 
set forth the fulness of heavenly joy that filled me 
when the hope was again raised that there was One, 
even He whom I had pierced, Jesus Christ the 
Redeemer, that was able to save me ? I saw Him to 
be the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world ; who Avas delivered for our offenses, and raised 
again for our justification; who is our propitiatory 
sacrifice, our Advocate with the Father, our Intercessor 
with God. On my earnest petition being put up to 
Him, the language was proclaimed, * Thy sins are 
forgiven, thy iniquities are pardoned/ Floods of 
tears of joy and gratitude gave vent to the fulness of 
my heart ! " 

This crisis in his spiritual being was marked in 
young Grellet's experience by a full-hearted surrender 
of himself to the God of his salvation. The language 
of his heart was — " I am wholly the Lord's." Very 
heavy trials had broken the pride of nature. The 
will, which is the very centre of our personality, was 
in his case consecrated. Rarely could one have said 
more truly : 

" Let others seek earth's honors ; be it mine 
One law to cherish, and to track one line, 
Straight on towards heaven to press with single bent, 
To know and love my God, and then to die content." 

Speaking now of his ''dear brother," he says: 
" Seeing how my face was turned, he began to unite 
with some of the people about me in reproaching the 



80 STEPHEN' GRELLET. 

way in which the Lord led me, which added much to 
my grief. He could not bear to hear me tell of the 
Lord's work, as it was upon me. Li my absence, 
however, I found after a while that he read William 
Penn's works. This encouraged me to hope that a 
seeking disposition was awakened, though he tried to 
shake it off. One First Day morning, when my 
prayer had been renewedly put up in secret for him, 
he called me back, after I had set out to go to 
meeting, saying he would go with me. How thankful 
did I feel ! Very few words passed between us by 
the way. The earnest petition of my heart was unto 
the Lord, that the power of His love and presence 
might be so displayed, as to convince my dear brother, 
and bring him to bow to His righteous sceptre. My 
prayers were heard. 

** My gratitude was great when I found that he had 
partaken of the heavenly visitation. From that time 
he attended meetings diligently, and was a great 
comfort to me. But, during ail that period, we had 
no intercourse with any of the members of the reli- 
gious Society of Friends." 

What abundant encouragement does such a record 
furnish of the fact that the great Father moves in 
His pitying, yearning love upon the hearts of His 
children, and that no pride of rank, or conventional 
prejudice, can turn aside the power of believing prayer. 
There is nothing this age needs more to learn than that 
the history of Stephen Grellet's conversion is being 
daily repeated. The acceptance of the facts of this 
experience, and of these preternatural visitations, would 



THE GREAT CHANGE. 31 

do more than anything else to arrest the materialistic 
skepticism that is the dark shadow over the closing 
years of this century. "Every good gift," said St. James, 
" and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down 
from the Father of lights, with whom is no variable- 
ness, neither shadow of turning." " Greater is the 
witness to God's goodness in the regeneration of man 
than that which is written on the dome of heaven." 
" Of His own will begat He us with the word of 
truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits " of the 
redemption and deliverance of creation itself and of 
the glorious day when He who undertook the salva- 
tion of the world shall say—" BEHOLD I MAKE 
ALL THINGS NEW." Meanwhile, there cannot be 
a better prayer and sacrifice for us, morning by 
morning, than to say in the Saviour's blessed name : — 

" O Israel's God, I bring Thee now my will, 
That would be Thine whate'er it cost, 
I love Thy gifts, yet love Thee most ; 
This is my prayer while yet the morn is still, 
Take Thou my will. 

The soul and body Thou dost hold in life, 

Be ever ready in Thy fear 

To fight for truth and justice here, 
And trusting Thee, to meet the final strife^ 
For Thou art life." 



CHAPTER IVo 

TUE DIVINE CALL. 

THERE are two ways of going up to the cross. 
One is that, alas ! of multitudes. They seem to 
prostrate themselves before the Saviour. They believe 
that He died for the guilty. They are glad there is 
rest for the conscience through Him. They go away 
to pursue their schemes of business or pleasure as 
heretofore. Religion to them is like a ledger, settled 
and shelved. Happily there are others who receive at 
the foot of the cross the forgiveness of sin, and, over- 
whelmed with gratitude before the transcendent sacri- 
fice, say with the apostle of the Gentiles, "For me to 
live is Christ." *' I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in 
me ; and the life that I now live in this bodily frame I 
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and 
gave Himself for me." A dreary and ineffective life 
do the first persons live, and a poor time they will 
have in the eternal realm. 

It is however needful to say that a true Christian 
before the cross does not so much ask for self-sacrifice, 
as that through the power of that cross he may per- 
fectly accept in all things the ivill of God. A man need 
not covet the reproach of the cross ; but he must ask 

to be prepared for it. Self-inflicted suffering for Christ, 

(32) 



THE DIVINE CALL. 33 

is not so holy a disposition as the complete surrender 
of the will to Him. Although Saul of Tarsus preached 
Christ as we gather, immediately after his conversion, 
he did not thrust himself into the obloquies and labors 
of the apostolic band. There is no more instructive 
passage in Paul's history than when we see him retiring 
to his native city Tarsus that he might await the 
unfolding of the will of the Lord. There Barnabas 
sought and found him ; and as he heard of the won- 
derful movement of the Spirit in the Syrian Antioch, 
he was at once in readiness to obey the call of the 
Lord as the visit of Barnabas interpreted it. 

Stephen Grellet remarks after his conversion, " I 
thought I heard a sweet language saying, ' Proclaim 
unto others what the Lord has done for thy soul.' Ap- 
prehending that this was a requisition of present duty, 
I began to plead excuses, from the consciousness of 
my inability to perform the service. * Thou knowest, 
O Lord, that I cannot speak English so as to be under- 
stood,' was my answer, * and what am I, that I should 
proclaim Thy name ?' 

" There was not the least feeling then in me to flinch 
from doing, or becoming, whatever the Lord would 
require of me, but a sense of my inability and unwor- 
thiness. My spirit continued prostrated before the 
Lord, and encircled with his love and presence." 

In this childlikeness of spirit, waiting to do or become 
" whatever the Lord might require " of him, he continued 
simple in character, and unobtrusive inbearing. "When 
.y^^dies in the soul, God lives ; when self is annihilated 
God is enthroned." A man truly devoted to God will 



U STEPHEN GRELLET. 

be in accord with all the duties of life, and we find this 
young believer naturally occupied with the condition 
of those dear to him. His father was shut up in 
prison; his mother and younger brother were suffering 
the severest privations. He remarks, however : " By 
letters from our dear parents, we learnt that it was 
their choice that we should, for the time being at 
least, remain in this country, seeing that the troubles 
in France continued great, and that our lives would 
be exposed by returning to it. Our parents were in 
constant jeopardy. Their estates were under seques- 
tration, and it became necessary for us to turn our 
attention towards engaging in some kind of business. 
Our means began to be low, and yet our feelings for 
the sufferings in which our beloved parents might be 
involved caused us to forward them a few hundred 
dollars we had yet left. 

" I did not find it easy to obtain suitable employ- 
ment, but I sought right direction of the Lord. We 
first came to New York, where I stayed about two 
weeks. I was much refreshed with the company of 
some valuable Friends. I considered it a privilege to 
sit with them in their religious meetings. The exer- 
cise of bearing a public testimony to the Lord's truth, 
and of declaring what He had done for me, came upon 
me with force. But dwelling in stillness, and waiting 
for clearness, I was favored to see that the time was 
not yet. 

" It was concluded that I should go to Philadelphia, 
while my brother, meeting with a situation, continued 
in New York. Our separation was painful, having 



THE DIVINE CALL. 35 

partaken together of many trials, and feeling much 
united in our religious services. I arrived in Phila- 
delphia in the I2th month, 1795, and met with a very 
kind reception from many Friends. 

"I had several offers to engage in commercial con- 
cerns, both in Philadelphia, and from my European 
friends, from whom I received proposals, by letters, to 
place me in an extensive way of business with the 
West Indies and Holland. But I saw that if I did, the 
sense of a new life in me, that was very tender, might 
easily be destroyed. I therefore preferred, for awhile, 
the occupation of teaching the French language. I 
engaged in it, it is true, as a cross ; but, having repeated 
evidence that it was a right engagement for me, it 
became easy to submit to it. I was at first concerned 
lest it should not be sufficient to procure me a living. 
After many anxious thoughts, one day, as my mind 
was gathered in reverent silence before the Lord, the 
language was strongly impressed : * Seek first the 
kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all things 
needful shall be added.' .The evidence that it was the 
direction of Omnipotence was so clear, that for months 
after that I was so relieved from temporal anxiety that 
I had no more thought about it. I was closely en- 
gaged in my school, yet the one thing needful only 
absorbed me, whilst walking in the streets, or sitting 
in the house. The remembrance of those days can 
but deeply humble me with gratitude, seeing how the 
Lord kept me close to Himself. A sense of His 
presence was so continually upon me, that not only 
m)' words, but my thoughts also, were narrowly 



«f6 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

watched. My exercises had no interruption, but, Hke 
the rolling waves of the ocean, they flowed one upon 
another. If I took a book to read, a single line would 
detain me for hours. Sometimes I have been a whole 
week in reading and pondering a single chapter in the 
Bible. 

" My mind was, at seasons, so taken up with a sense 
of the Lord's love, that it seemed as if I could have 
continued days and nights swallowed up in it. But 
though the love of God thus filled my heart, yet most 
of the time it was clothed with deep exercises. Every 
step of my past life was retraced again and again. I 
suffered deeply not only for the evil I had done, but 
also for the good I had omitted to do. I saw the 
emptiness and arrogance of Cain's reply to the Al- 
mighty, 'Am I my brother's keeper?' We ought to 
be watchers over one another, and great is our respon- 
sibility as moral agents." 

The beauty and impressiveness of this record will 
be apparent, but let us adore that Divine love and 
wisdom which thus purifies the vessel that it may be 
meet for God's use, and prepared for receiving the 
heavenly treasure. Such waiting upon the Lord, such 
spiritual thoughtfulness, and such humblings of self 
because of past offenses, become the best education for 
effective service with a view to the salvation of men. 
This period, when the young noble preferred the 
humiliation of teaching in a school to exposing the 
early days of a new life of religion to the perils of foreign 
mercantile pursuits, became an excellent preparation 
for his subsequent apostolic life. Not only was he 



THE DIVINE CALL. 37 

able to acquire a better knowledge of English, but the 
retirement was singularly helpful. " In God's view 
the ti7ne of a thing is as essential as the thing itself." 
Many a kernel would have been riper when taken out 
of the shell had it been allowed to grow longer in 
silence and hiddenness. 

It was at this time^ however, that the inward call of 
the Spirit began to be heard more powerfully in his 
soul. It was God's will that he should go among the 
nations, as a witness for the inward religion of the heart 
instead of the ceremonial one of external forms. The 
nineteenth century now about to dawn required such a 
witness. As we read of his " exercises " at this period 
we may think it was the voice of nature impelling him ; 
but why should it be thought strange if we regard it as 
the voice of God ? Did not the Spirit of the Lord come 
upon the Hebrew prophets? May not an imperious 
conviction that he had to minister for the Lord have 
become as a holy fire in the heart of Stephen Grellet? 
About a year after he had been teaching, he says of 
tiie religious assemblies in which he was accustomed 
to sit in silence : 

" Meeting after meeting I was under the pressure of 
exercise to stand up and speak a few words ; but the 
sense of the awfulness of the engagement prevented 
me. Oh, the depth of my baptisms, in those days ! 
My disobedience did not, however, proceed from any 
outward considerations, or even the crosses involved 
to the natural man. I was brought too low to have 
thoughts of this kind ; and, I think I may say, my 
love for my dear Master was so great, that no sacrifice 



■38 STEPBEN GRELLET. 

or suffering would then have been thought too much; 
but I could not believe that such a poor creature as I 
was, such a great sinner as I had been, could be fit to 
engage in such a solemn work." 

He records also : " I saw my unworthiness to engage 
in such a sacred service, and felt myself to be alto- 
gether a child, that was only beginning to breathe the 
breath of life. . . 

** How great was the Divine condescension in those 
days ! As a father answereth his child, so the Lord 
condescended to answer all my pleadings and excuses; 
to give me also a sense of the source from whence all 
power, strength, and ability flow. He showed me 
how He is mouth, wisdom, and utterance to His true 
and faithful ministers ; that it is from Him alone that 
they are to receive the subject they are to communi- 
cate to the people, and also the when and the how. It 
is He who giveth the seeing eye, the hearing ear, the 
understanding heart, and enableth the dumb to speak. 

"It was on the 20th of 1st month, 1796, the third 
day of the week, that I first opened my mouth in the 
ministry. For some days after this act of dedication, 
my peace flowed as a river, whilst mine eyes were like 
fountains of tears of gratitude, in that the Lord had so 
mercifully continued to bear with me." 

We cannot read these heart experiences of the 
inward call on the one hand, and of the trembling and 
backwardness on the oth^r, without reminding our- 
selves of the two great prophets of Israel. The word 
of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, ** Before thou 
wast born I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." 



TSE DIVINE CALL. 39 

Then said the son of Hilkiah, " Ah, Lord God ! behold 
I cannot speak, for I am a child." At that cry 
Jehovah put forth His hand, the prophet tells us, and 
touched his mouth and said, " Behold I have put My 
words in thy mouth." It was also when Isaiah cried 
out, " Woe is me ! for I am undone ; becatise I am a 
man of unclean lips," that one of the seraphim flew 
and laid, from off the altar, the live coal upon the 
prophet's mouth, and said, " Lo, this hath touched thy 
lips." Words given from God to lips touched by the 
perpetual fire become all-powerful. The wondrous 
word respecting the one great '* Servant of God " was, 
" He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouthy 
and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked." 
How well Jeremiah understood the necessity of receiv- 
ing the message at the steps of the throne of the Lord is 
evident from his declaration concerning false prophets, 
" I sent them not, nor commanded them ; therefore they 
shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." '' No 
man taketh this honor to himself" — i. e., of being a 
priest — " but he that is called of God," is the language 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Blessed is the Chris- 
tian teacher who has first this internal call of the Holy 
Ghost, with these motions of the Spirit on heart, will, 
and judgment! How much Paul laid stress on the 
inward and outward call to be an apostle ! Doubtless, 
great confidence and ability to bear the heavy trials of 
the ministry come from this assurance. Weighty are 
the words of the pious Quesnel, " The ministry is a 
matter of pure grace and favor; who then will dare to 
enter it without a Divine call ? There is nothing in 



40 STEPHEN OREL LET. 

which a king would willingly be more absolute than the 
choice of his ministers. And shall we dare to contest 
and take away this right from the King of kings ?" 
Wise is he who, aspiring to teach in the streets, or 
mission room, or the sanctuary of God, shall ponder 
these things. 

In Stephen Grellet's case the external call was not 
wanting. Helped in the highest interests and in so 
remarkable a manner by Friends, it was a most natu- 
ral result that this young convert from Roman Catholi- 
cism should make application for membership in the 
Society. Their benevolent and honorable spirit, their 
emphatic Protestantism, and their hearty assent and 
consent to the doctrine that all truth essential to 
human salvation is to be found in Holy Scripture, 
commended themselves to this young exile, as well 
as that he owed much to the friendly interest of the 
Society. 

It was at the close of 1796, when Grellet was in his 
twenty-fourth year, that the Friends received him into 
their fellowship, and recognized his gifts as a speaker 
in the name of their and his Master. Even then, how- 
ever, he wisely says, " No man, nor any religious body, 
can save any ; salvation cometh from God alone." 

After continuing to exercise his gift as a teacher of 
the gospel, in March, 1798, he was duly recorded as a 
minister of Christ by the monthly meeting of Friends 
for the Northern District in Philadelphia. The event 
he says, " brought me under renewed concern that I 
might be so preserved in watchfulness, and humble 
walking before the Lord, as in no wise to wound His 



THE DIVINE CALL 41 

great and blessed cause, which I believed He had 
condescended to call such a poor unworthy instru- 
ment to espouse. In those days my mind dwelt much 
on the nature of the hope of redemption through 
Jesus Christ. I felt the efficacy of that grace by which 
we are saved, through faith in Christ and His atoning 
blood, and the excellency of the blessed gifts which, 
in consequence of this the meritorious sacrifice of 
Himself for sinful man, are offered to the believer in 
His name." 

He was not, however, without his great sorrows 
during these years. ** The accounts which I received, 
in those days," he remarks, " of the distracted state of 
my native country much afflicted me. My dear 
parents being in prison, I expected every day to receive 
the mournful tidings of their having met with a cruel 
death, among the many victims who fell a sacrifice to 
the ferocious spirit that had overspread the nation. 
Some of those who heretofore had professed to be the 
most intimate friends of my dear father, and others to 
whom he had rendered many services, were now his 
greatest enemies and persecutors." 

To God he talked and prayed without ceasing, and 
he adds, " It may be proper to state, that my parents 
were preserved from an untimely death, and delivered 
from the hands of unmerciful men, though my father 
was several times on the very eve of being taken to 
the guillotine, and my mother also. It was finally 
concluded that they, and others, should be put to 
death the day following the death of Robespierre, 
when, that very morning, instead of being led to 



42 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

execution, the prison doors were opened for their 
liberation. I may further gratefully say, that none of 
my near relatives suffered a violent death during those 
days of terror. A first cousin of mine was ordered to 
be put to death, but on the morning appointed for his 
execution he was rescued." 

Social and national controversies also occupied and 
distressed him. It required singular courage in the 
United States, at the end of the last century, to main- 
tain the rights of the Africans, whose slavery had been 
the s,ad inheritance which Great Britain had bequeathed 
to her colonies. The foremost in the noble band of 
Abolitionists, who would at length arouse the torpid 
conscience of the States on this question, were the 
Friends ; and this young man, identified with them in 
this sentiment, observes : 

"Another subject, v/hich obtained much of the atten- 
tion of Friends, was the state of the oppressed Africans. 
The Yearly Meeting came to the conclusion that any 
people of color, becoming convinced of our principles, 
and making application to be received as members of 
our Society, ought to be treated as white persons, 
without any distinction on account of color, seeing 
that there is none with God, who has made all the 
nations of the earth of one blood, and that Jesus Christ 
has died for all, and is the Saviour of all who believe 
in Him, of whatever nation or color they may be." 

No estimate at this day can be formed of the value 
and weight of such a testimony, and of the social 
sufferings incident to such action. In exalting those 
who are permitted to accomplisJi a grand deliverance, 



THE DIVINE CALL. 43 

we must not forget the first confessors against the in- 
j ustice, and the first workers for the final victory. At 
the beginning of this century the prejudice in America 
against the colored people was very marked. The 
Africans — and even such as were of fairer color than 
their masters — were not allowed to journey, or sit in 
churches, by the side of the whites. The antipathy 
prevailed even in the non-slaveholding States. That 
so far back therefore as 1798 the Society of Friends 
should have adopted the humane principle of which 
Mr. Grellet makes mention, must be held to have 
placed them far in advance of other religious organiza- 
tions. 

*' Oh, bless'd is he to whom is given 
The instinct that can tell, 
That God is on the field, when He 
Is most invisible. 

And bless'd is he who can divine 

Where real right doth lie, 
And dares to take the side that seems 

Wrong to man's blinded eye." 



CHAPTER V. 

DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 

THE scientific spirit cannot admit the super- 
natural," is an assumed axiom which by its 
very boldness has been sorely misleading young and 
earnest inquirers. But is not "the scientific spirit" 
the expression of the science of induction, and of the 
modern and accepted philosophy? It may be true 
that science must study the law of causes and effects 
in nature without introducing the supernatural. But 
if in the moral sphere incontestable facts come before 
us which point to the supernatural, it cannot be a true 
scientific spirit to ignore them. To frame a theory 
that there is nothing supernatural, and then to shut 
the eyes to phenomena which do not fit in with it, is 
to be led by the old methods of philosophy, and is 
provoking a very healthy reaction among some of the 
highest scientific minds of our period. The coolness 
with which the doctrine of evolution is accepted while 
it proceeds under self-acting laws, and the hostility to 
the doctrine when accompanied by the idea of will, 
not only does not harmonize with true science, but 
not even with common intelligence and candor. We 
Christians maintain that men are sorely pressed by 

temptation and sorrow ; 

(44) 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 46 

*' The fool hath said there is no God, 
But none there is no sorrow." 

We contend that human history gives proof of facts 
which go to show that a Divine power has been seek- 
ing through all the ages to arrest temptation and heal 
sorrow. We contend further that utter incredulity as 
to these facts is wholly inexcusable, and that to deny 
them is not to get rid of them. In the history of 
Stephen Grellet, as in that of other saintly persons, 
there are incidents and experiences that point to 
Divine interpositions. Credulity and superstition may 
magnify this superhuman control. Sweeping asser- 
tions, however, that it does not exist may be more 
hurtful to a generation than the easy credulity. To 
many persons, for " the Father of the spirits of all 
flesh " to touch the heart and to mould the events of 
life of His servants with a view to the good of His 
suffering creatures appears a most Divine act; and 
probably in the history of a St. Paul, a St. Anthony, 
a Catherine of Sienna, a Savonarola, and a Wesley — 
that is, of persons who more than others were lifted 
out of the self-life into a region transcending ordinary 
experiences — if we knew the nature of the fellowship 
they maintained with God, the opening of their ear and 
the quickening of their understanding to comprehend 
the Divine sympathies, we should have an explanation 
of facts which are questioned or denied by those who 
are actuated by a lower spiritual life. 

Stephen Grellet remained in Philadelphia three 
years. Being a minister of Christ among the Friends 



46 STEPUEN GRELLET. 

did not imply ?i professional 'pos\\\on. He was still, if 
the conventional term may be allowed, a simple lay- 
man, but one whose gifts and calling as a preacher were 
fully recognized by the Society. An awful sweep of 
most malignant fever passed over Philadelphia in 1798. 

Grellet was in Jersey, but hearing of the yellow 
fever, returned to the city, spite of the dissuasions of 
his friends. He says: "My mind was perfectly calm 
about the danger of which I was warned. When I 
came into the city the sight was solemn. That great 
city, but a few days before full of inhabitants, was now 
nearly deserted ; its heretofore crowded streets were 
trodden by a few solitary individuals, whose counte- 
nances bespoke seriousness or sadness. On reaching 
the friend's house where I made my home, I found it 
shut up, like most of the neighbors' ; but obtaining 
the key, I opened it, and resumed my former abode, 
though alone in it. 

'' I went about for some time, visiting the sick and 
dying, and assisting in burying the dead. My feelings 
were much awakened, both on account of strangers 
and Friends. How sweet and peaceful was the close 
of some, so that I could have joyfully exchanged my 
situation for theirs ; but how great the contrast with 
others! Some joyfully and smilingly departed, in the 
fulness of the hope which the gospel inspires; whereas 
others experienced the agony and horrors of death, 
throwing their arms around me, to keep hold of a living 
object, crying out in bitterness, ' I cannot die ! I am 
not fit to die ! ' The horror of this scene is yet present 
with me. O that those who live in pleasure might pause 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. i7 

awhile, and contemplate the awful subject ! Do not 
leave it to a sick-bed, or a dying hour, to make your 
peace with God. Rather, I beseech you, improve 
diligently your opportunity in time of health, and, 
whilst the Lord's visitation is extended to you, make 
your calling and election sure, through Jesus Christ! 

" In those days former friends were deserted ; yea, 
even the wife was left by her husband, and the husband 
became a stranger to his wife, seeking safety in flight, 
leaving their sick to the care of a strange nurse. 
The dead bodies were conveyed to the grave, in most 
instances, with no other convoy than the hearse and 
driver. This was the case even with those who, weeks 
before, might have been attended by hundreds. Most 
of the places of worship were shut up. 

It was from this time that the pitifulness and philan- 
thropy which became the passion of his life took full 
possession of his nature. For him to see suffering 
was always to attempt to heal it. Convenience or 
self-precautions were never allowed to hinder. Now, 
however, this young man of twenty-four years is not 
to escape the malignancy of the disease. One day he 
had been attending to the condition of some Lascars 
who had been turned out of an English vessel desti- 
tute and friendless. The extraordinary exertions he 
had to make brought on an attack. Severe pains and 
symptoms of the fever came on him. He observes : 
" My soul was swallowed up in the love of God, and 
perfectly contented in the will of the Lord. After re- 
maining about an hour in that state, feeling my 
strength fast declining, and being alone in the house, 



48 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

I went down stairs to unlock the front door. Had I 
deferred this a little longer, it is probable that I should 
not have had sufficient strength to do it, for it was 
with difficulty that I went up stairs again. A friend, 
not seeing me the next day at the usual time, came to 
the house. He soon brought me a physician and a 
nurse. The former paid me but a few visits ; for he 
took the fever, and died five days after. The disorder 
so increased upon me, that my extremities having be- 
come cold, my coffin was ordered, and I was even 
returned among the daily deaths to the board of 
health, as a ' French Quaker.' 

" Whilst death seemed to be approaching, and I 
had turned myself on one side, the more easily to 
breathe my last, my spirit feeling already as encircled 
by the angelic host in the Heavenly Presence, a secret 
but powerful language was proclaimed on this wise : 
*Thou shalt not die, but live — thy work is not yet 
done.' Then the corners of the earth, over seas and 
lands, were opened to me, where I should have to 
labor in the service of the gospel of Christ. O what 
amazement I was filled with ! What a solemn and 
awful prospect was set before me ! Sorrow took hold 
of me at the words ; for it seemed as if I had had 
already a foothold in the heavenly places. I wept 
sore ; but, as it was the Divine will, I bowed in rever- 
ence before Him, interceding that, after I had been 
enabled to do the work He had for me to do, I 
might be permitted to be placed in the same state in 
which I then was, pass through the valley of the 
shadow of death strengthened by His Divine presence, 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 49 

and enter finally into those glorious mansions at the 
threshold of which my spirit had then come. I saw 
and felt that which cannot be written. From that 
time the disorder subsided. My strength by degrees 
returned, and, in a very few days, I was able to be re- 
moved to kind friends. A brother was then ill in the 
house, and died a few days after ; I was able to min- 
ister to him to the last. Soon after this, five of the 
same family were attacked, and, for a while, some of 
them were so ill that going from one to the other I 
hardly knew which of them would die first. My 
health was yet very feeble, yet I think I was about a 
week without undressing to go to bed. Part of this 
time there were only two of us to care for them ; no 
nurses could be obtained. The precious seasons, 
however, which I had by the sick-beds of my friends, 
sitting under the canopy of the Lord's presence, often 
changed these scenes of mourning into joy. They 
all recovered, and, the sickness in the city continuing, 
I resumed my visits to the sick and the poor. 

" One circumstance I may not omit to notice, as a 
confirmation of what the Lord had showed me re- 
specting the exercises I must prepare for during the 
residue of my pilgrimage. In a religious meeting I 
Was able to attend soon after my recovery, Arthur 
Howell, in the course of his testimony, mentioned me 
by name, and said that the Lord had raised me up, 
having a service for me to the isles and nations afar 
off, to the east and west, the north and south. I had 
been careful to keep to myself the view I had had of 
these things on what seemed to me a death-bed. I 



60 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

knew therefore that this was a confirmation of the 
word of the Lord. 

"After this, further sources of mourning and deep 
prostration of soul before the Lord were opened. For, 
besides the continued distress in the city, among my 
friends and the people at large, we received informa- 
tion of the d^ath of many of our friends from the 
country, among whom were about twenty ministers 
and elders. I was very nearly united to several of them 
in Christian fellowship ; some had been as nursing 
fathers and mothers to me. Oh, these were days for 
our walking softly before the Lord, when with tremb- 
ling we waited for further tidings, having heard that 
several others in the country were ill. Among these 
was Warner Mifflin, that great friend and advocate of 
the cause of the poor slaves ; and, shortly after, we 
heard of his decease and that of several others. My 
own life having been spared, even as one raised from 
the dead, quickened in me earnest desires that I might 
so walk before the Lord as that my. life and my all 
might be devoted to His service." 

In 1799 he removed to New York, and engaged 
with his brother in mercantile objects. He continues 
in his Journal : " Some time after this, I heard that my 
dear friend John Hall was coming from England on a 
religious visit to the United States, and the impression 
was made strongly upon my mind that I must stand 
prepared to join and accompany him in the service of 
the gospel. I cried earnestly unto the Lord that, if 
it was indeed His will that I should engage in such an 
extensive work, He would condescend to give me 30nie 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 51 

strong evidence of it, and that, as a proof of it, He 
would give to this dear friend to see it himself with 
clearness. He arrived at New York early in the Tenth 
Month. I visited him soon afterwards, when he took 
me aside and told me, in a solemn manner, that I was 
the identical person that he had seen, whilst at sea, 
prepared of the Lord to be his companion in the service 
of the gospel here. He further feelingly said, *I leave 
the matter entirely to the Lord and to thee.' I felt 
very cautious not to tell him how it had been with me, 
though I marvelled at the Lord's condescension in 
giving me such an evidence of His will. After weigh- 
ing carefully the subject, and seeking for the Lord's 
direction, I concluded that, to have a better opportu- 
nity *to try the fleece,' I would accompany him as far 
as Philadelphia, when, finding it was a service required 
of me, I came back to New York. The Monthly 
Meeting gave me a certificate of unity and sympathy 
under this prospect of religious service. 

" Leaving my small temporal concerns under the 
care of my dear brother and partner, and resigning 
myself to my dear Master's blessed protection, and to 
the guidance of His Spirit, I went back to PhiladeL 
phia, to join my beloved friend John Hall." 

With affectionate tenderness and sympathy was he 
received by the Friends in that Quaker city. With 
his colleague he proceeded through many towns on 
their way to Baltimore, holding meetings wherever 
possible, and visiting families. Thence they proceeded 
through Maryland to Alexandria, to Richmond in 
Virginia^ and through North Carolina. He writes : 



62 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

" There the Lord was pleased, in an humbling, 
memorable manner, to visit me again, and to comfort 
me. I had gone into the woods, which are there mostly 
of very lofty and large pines, and, my mind being in- 
wardly retired before the Lord, He was pleased so to 
reveal His love to me, through His blessed Son, my 
Saviour, that my many fears and doubts were at that 
time removed, my soul's wounds were healed, my 
mourning was turned into joy. He clothed me with 
the garment of praise, instead of the spirit of heaviness, 
and He strengthened me to offer up myself again freely 
to Him and to His service for my whole life. Walk, 
O my soul, in that path which thy blessed Master has 
trodden before thee, and has consecrated for thee 
Be also willing to die to thyself, that thou mayest live 
through faith in Him." 

On returning he narrates : 

" On our way to Contentnea, we had, amid immi- 
nent dangers, a remarkable preservation. At about 
eight o'clock on a very dark night, we came near to a 
creek. Our guide, though well acquainted with the 
place and the ford, for greater safety, rode to a cabin, 
not far distant, to inquire if the creek was fordable. 
He was told that there had been no rain for many days 
that could raise the creek (there had been heavy rains 
up the country, with which, it appears, the person 
inquired of was not acquainted). Putting a white 
handkerchief round his hat, that we might the better 
distinguish him, our guide rode before us, desiring us 
to keep close behind him, as the descent into the 
cr^ek was steep and difficult. As soon as we were in, 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 53 

we found the water so deep that our horses began to 
swim, and the current was so strong as to turn the 
body of our carriage down the stream. The carriage 
was soon filled with water. Our horses, swimming, 
kept up close behind our guide. To our surprise 
when we came near the other side, we found we had 
no hind wheels. We were obliged to leave the car- 
riage and the fore w^heels in the water, at a short 
distance from the shore. Fastening our wet baggage 
with ropes on the horses, we proceeded about a mile 
to our friend Jeremiah Home's, who ministered to us 
in our wet and cold condition. The next morning 
early, on going to the creek to see after our carriage, 
we found that the waters had fallen about sixteen 
inches during the night, and we discovered the upper 
part of our hind wheels about six inches above the 
water, very near the place where we had first entered 
the creek, so that we must have floated soon after we 
got in. Had we been left to the current of the river, 
we could not have escaped being drowned, for the 
banks on both sides of the creek are for some distance 
steep and bushy. Through the help of a canoe, we 
recovered the wheels." 

Again in New York, he applied himself diligently to 
his mercantile pursuits. He was simple in his habits, 
and, walking in this simplicity, was kept from corroding 
anxiety. In 1801, however, he again entered as a 
companion of John Hall on a second journey of minis- 
tering, and travelled about four thousand miles. The 
years 1 802-3 he spent in New York. At the beginning 
of 1804 he was married to Rebecca Collins, daughter 



64 STEPHEN- GRELLET. 

of Isaac and Rachel Collins, of that city. The mar- 
riage proved singularly happy. His young wife was 
in full sympathy with all his religious views and pur- 
poses. 

In this year 1804 he visited Canada, and preached 
in his native language. The Roman Catholic priests 
moved the people against him. This, however, excited 
the curiosity of the Canadians. He directed them to 
Christ, and records respecting one of his meetings in 
a private house : 

*' The Lord opened the hearts of many of them so 
as to bring them into tenderness ; several of them gave 
vent to their inward convictions by expression, and 
now and then cried out in French, ' C'est la v^rit^.' 
They were very loving after meeting, and pressed me 
to come again and have meetings among them. They 
now feared not what their priests might say or do." 

Crossing the St. Lawrence, he went to Montreal, 
and visited one of the convents, and spoke freely to 
the nuns and their superior. In the city and the region 
round about he preached the gospel to the people 
and priests, some of whom acknowledged publicly 
the truth of the word he spoke to them. Thence he 
went a hundred and fifty miles on the paths of the 
Indians, availing himself of every opening for advan- 
cing the work he had at heart. Thus he again travelled 
through the States, and arrived after an absence of 
three months at New York. 

In the following year he made another visit to Penn- 
sylvania. Of this journey he says : 

" The Lord has been pleased, at nearly every 



DIVINE INTERPOSITIONS. 6$ 

meeting, to open my way to unfold my soul's exercise 
to the people. At some of these meetings I have 
been enlarged in the gospel of Christ, in a manner 
very humbling and memorable to myself, and to the 
contriting of the hearts of many present. The Lord 
has also been near in private religious opportunities. 
Keeping a single eye to the putting forth of the Divine 
Spirit, the way frequently opens for private service; 
in this the application, ' Thou art the man,' often 
comes home much more forcibly than in a public 
meeting, whether the message be one of reproof, 
instruction, or comfort and consolation." 

Soon after this the sad tidings fell on his ear that 
the yellow fever had broken out in New York. He 
thought of his wife and says : 

'' This was a remarkable time for me, for after sitting 
awhile in the meeting, it seemed as if I was following 
some of my near relatives to their grave, and I saw 
with clearness that it was right for me to return 
homewards with all speed. It was a trial to me, as 
I had had some prospect of having a few more 
meetings in these parts ; but I felt that the same 
power that had put me forth in His service now 
called me back from it : therefore my soul bowed 
before the Lord in adoration. 

'' I proceeded that afternoon and the following days, 
with all speed towards New York. On the 15th of 
Ninth Month I reached Rahway, by noon, and there 
heard that my wife's mother was very ill with the 
epidemic. Thus confirmed in the correctness of the 
impressions made upon me, I pursued my journey, 
and after crossing the North River that afternoon, I 



(Jd STEPHEN GRELLET 

met with a person who gave me the heavy tidings that 
my mother-in-law was deceased, and that the family 
were in Westchester (twelve miles farther), where they 
had retired when the fever made its appearance in the 
city, and that my dear wife was sick. About nine at 
night I reached the house. I found the family in great 
affliction, but supported under the stroke : and now 
our solicitude was excited on account of my dear wife, 
for she had a heavy load of disease upon her. It is 
remarkable that on the evening of this my speedy re- 
turn to her, her mind was so sensible of my being near 
that she told her sister, who was at her bedside that 
she saw me as if I was in the chamber. Her sister 
thought her flighty, through the fever ; but she replied, 
* It is a reality, I see him near,' though at that time 
she had every reason to conclude I was about two 
hundred miles distant." 

Before proceeding to the wider labors of Mr. Grellet, 
let a sentence quoted on the last page from his journal 
be noted : — ''Keeping a single eye to the putting forth of 
the Divine Spirit'' The phrase is very suggestive, and 
reveals the secret of his power. If we are more care- 
ful as to what is thought of the messenger than of the 
message we bear, and are mainly concerned to win a 
human approval, we are altogether out of the line of 
the Spirit's operation. holy Father^ teach tis what 
Thy Son meant by the eye being single and the whole 
body full of light. Let all self -de sires be absorbed in a 
supreme and all-mastering loyalty to be sanctified chan- 
nels for the free actings of Thy Holy Spirit. Possess tiSy 
and, Jiolding our liand, lead us on from service to service 
in the extending of Thy Kingdom / 



CHAPTER VI. 

VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 

SEVENTEEN years had elapsed since the young 
De Grellets had fled as fugitives from France. 
During this time the wild reign of anarchy and spolia- 
tion had passed into the iron rule of the militarism of 
the first Napoleon. There was some prospect, how- 
ever, that the young French noble might visit in 
safety his fatherland. The seventeen years had wrought 
a great change in his character. He now was very 
dignified and graceful in presence ; remarkably urbane, 
tender, and courteous in manner; his nature was, 
moreover, one of fine sensibility, but this was in com- 
bination with great intrepidity and cool judgment. 
Having emerged from Romanism and skepticism, his 
convictions were clear and strong. Heavy afflictions 
had fallen upon him, and sorrow is the kind monitress 
of nobleness and meekness. He had lost rank, social 
position, and property; had known for many years 
the sadness of an exile, and had mourned his separa- 
tion from his revered parents. His views of the gospel 
were moreover decided. He speaks in one place of 
the ultra-Calvinism he met with and the perplexities 
of persons on the doctrines of election and a limited 
atonement. Taught, however, by the study of the 

(57) 



58 STEPUEN GRELLET. 

Scriptures, and not by the partial theological opinions 
of the times, he found no such difficulties. Christ 
was to him the *' Lamb of God " for the world, and 
the invitations of Divine love were in his creed 
addressed freely and urgently to ail men. He saw 
men bound in sin, estranged from the life of God, 
tempted on every hand, and exposed to a terrible 
calamity of woe. God was to him the tender and 
loving Father, striving with men to win them to Him- 
self, and in patient, quenchless love yearning for their 
salvation. But his fitness and ability as a preacher of 
the Word came from his habits of communion with 
the Lord. In religious meetings he waited silently 
upon the Spirit of God for direction and command ; 
in his chamber, in pine forests, and in the solitudes of 
the prairie, he poured out unceasing prayer. And yet 
it was not always prayer as it is generally understood. 
It was a state of heart which was united to God in 
faith and self-surrender. To articulate in human 
language the very thought of God towards men was 
his one aim. He sought to stand in the Divine 
counsel; to listen for God's message; and by self- 
prostration and lowly waiting to receive from heaven 
the testimony he had to bear. No man ever entered 
more completely into the great teaching of St. Peter : 
" If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of 
God ; if any man minister, let him do it as of the 
ability which God giveth ; that God in all things may 
be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise 
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." 

The heart of the son had perpetually gone forth to 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 59 

his parents. His father died in 1803. A two years' 
imprisonment, and all the anxieties and sufferings 
connected with the revolutionary struggles in France, 
had impaired his health. He had concluded to retire 
into Holland, and had made preparations for leaving 
the city of Limoges, and France, when, as his son 
remarks, " the Lord was pleased to order that his 
removal should be far more distant, even to that world 
of spirits where sorrows for ever end. The afflictions 
he endured were, through adorable mercy, sanctified 
to him. The last years of his life, his nature was 
changed ; mildness and kindness were his character- 
istics. Even whilst in prison, under the iron rule of 
Robespierre, he would encourage his fellow-prisoners 
to patient submission to the Lord's will. He was a 
man of great integrity, much beloved by his family 
and friends." 

His mother was, however, residing at Brives, 
whither his brother Joseph had gone from New 
York, and Stephen now followed. Unhappily his 
wife's state of health forbade her accompanying him, 
but with her full concurrence he went forth, and says : 

" It was a solemn parting between my beloved wife 
and myself; but the Lord gave strength, in humble 
submission, to be resigned to His will, and to follow 
Him wherever He might be pleased to send me. 
Lord, for Thy sake and Thy truth, my dear com- 
panion and Thy servant have offered one another to 
Thee ; keep her by Thy power ^ comfort her by Thy 
presence ; fulfil the promise Thou hast made to Thy 
servant, * My presence shall go with thee, and I will 



GO BTEPIIEN GRELLET. 

give thee rest.' None can have ever gone on the 
Lord's service under a greater sense of their poverty, 
weakness, and inability of themselves to do anything 
to the glory of God."" 

On board the ship Brunswick, in which he sailed, 
he had many opportunities given to him for what he 
terms "maintaining my Christian testimony and open- 
ing the principles of truth." 

Released after some delay from quarantine, he made 
his way to Languedoc. Quotations from the journal 
he kept will give glimpses of the work on which he 
entered. His remarkable ministry was now to be 
more manifest. At St. Hypolite he obtained a place 
for a meeting, and narrates : 

"The place was thought sufficient to contain the 
people, being a large room ; but it seemed as if all 
the inhabitants of the town had turned out. The 
house being filled, a large number stood in the street, 
in a quiet, becoming manner. I had taken my seat 
near the window, to be heard both in the house and 
in the street. For some time I sat under great dis- 
tress of mind, yet, at the same time, the love of God 
through Christ flowed in my heart towards the people. 
Abiding under it, I felt the Lord's power to rise over 
all. Then I thought I felt His word of command to 
preach unto the multitude Christ, with His attributes 
and Divine offices, when, on hearing some bustle 
through the crowd towards the door, Louis Majolier, 
who sat by me, whispered to me, * The Commissary 
of Police is coming.' I so felt the Lord's power that 
I answered him, ' Fear not ; only be quiet.' The 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 61 

Commissary then, drawing near to me, said, ' Are you 
the person that is going to preach ? ' I repHed, ' It 
may be so; please to sit down;' on which, taking me 
by the collar of the coat, he said, ' You must follow 
me to the Mayor ; ' when I answered, * I may not de- 
tain thee long, please to take a seat a little while;' on 
which I began to speak to the people, as the Lord 
gave me. He stood amazed, keeping hold of me as 
I spoke, till at last he said, * I go and make my re- 
port,' and then he retired. I continued preaching to 
the people, who all kept quiet, not moved at all by 
what passed. Indeed, on the contrary, when the Com- 
missary, on his way to the door, passing by some 
soldiers who were in the meeting-room, ordered them 
to go and take me, they answered, * We cannot disturb 
a man thus engaged.' I continued about an hour to 
speak to the people, as the Lord enabled me ; for He 
was with us. His love and power were felt by many, 
whose spirits were greatly contrited ; the Divine wit- 
ness reached their hearts. Having taken my seat, the 
meeting concluded, when I judged it expedient to go 
immediately to the Mayor's office ; several persons 
accompanied me. Not finding him there, I was pro- 
ceeding to his house, when I met the Commissary, 
who began to threaten me with imprisonment, and 
with heavy fines upon those who were at the meeting. 
We went together with him to the Mayor's house, 
and waited a considerable time for his return. In the 
meanwhile, many people out of concern for me, others 
from curiosity, were gathered about to see the end of 
this. At last, when the Mayor returned, the Commis' 



G2 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

sary went' to him to make his own representation, 
which prepossessed him against us, so that when we 
came in, seeing me with my hat on, he put on an angry 
countenance ; but, in a mild, respectful manner, I gave 
him some of my reasons for thus appearing covered. 
I had hardly given my explanation, when, with a 
placid countenance, he said, * I know something of 
the Society of Friends, and their manners.' Then, 
making me sit by him, in presence of the people now 
collected, he inquired into the object of my present 
engagements, which led to the unfolding of the reli- 
gious principles of our Society, and various Christian 
testimonies, after which, in presence of all, he read 
audibly the translation in French of my certificates, 
and heard my account of the care extended by our 
Society towards their ministers when thus going 
abroad as ambassadors for Christ. He said after that, 
' I am sorry you have been disturbed ; had I been 
here, it would not have been so. If you wish to have 
any more meetings, I shall have care taken that every 
arrangement be made, and nobody shall disturb you.' 
I accepted his civility, and we parted ; his heart was 
open towards me. I left with him several books, in 
French, on religious subjects, which he kindly ac- 
cepted; and the next day, on my way to Quissac 
another town, a messenger, sent by his wife, overtook 
me, requesting that if I could spare some more of our 
books for some of their friends, it would oblige her. 
Among the books I gave, were Peon's ' Rise and 
Progress of Friends,' his * Maxims/ * No Cross, No 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME 63 

Crown,' and some tracts I had had printed at NIsmes. 
The name of the Mayor is Laperouse." 

At Quissac he preached at night, in an orchard, to 
about fifteen hundred persons, lanterns hanging from 
the trees, and says : 

" I have seldom known a more solemn stillness pre- 
vailing in a religious meeting than we witnessed there. 
It was a time of very precious visitation of the Lord 
to this people ; the gospel descended upon them as 
the dew upon the tender grass." 

Travelling night and day some hundreds of miles, 
he at length reached Brives, and writes : 

" The meeting with my precious mother was an 
affecting one. We had not sqqxi each other since the 
year 1790, and many eventful circumstances had 
occurred during that series of years. Her sufferings, 
and those of my dear father, during the Revolution, 
were great, more so than I had heard before. 

" I am here entirely surrounded by Roman Catholics, 
and am a public spectacle among them. Every part 
of my dress, speech, and conduct is narrowly con- 
sidered, and gives rise to various inquiries. My 
services among these people are of a different character 
from what they have generally been hitherto. There 
is no door open as yet for public meetings among 
them ; but I have interesting and solemn seasons in 
private circles. In almost every company to which I 
am introduced, their spirit of inquiry leads to the 
unfolding of doctrines of the gospel, and the nature 
of pure religion. Thus I have to set before them 
how unsafe it is to trust the salvation of a never-dying 



64 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

soul to what their priests can do for them, to prayers 
to their saints, etc., the short and only sure way being, 
with sincere repentance for our sins, to come to Christ 
Jesus, the only Saviour, who has given Himself for us 
to save us from sin, and not that we should continue 
to live in sin. 

" I have been with several of the priests, but how 
dark and ignorant they are : pleading for their various 
superstitions, gaudy practices in their masses, confes- 
sions, worship, their indulgences, pilgrimages, and 
many such doings. They bring forth tradition as 
their authority, which, they say, has proceeded from 
oral command, delivered by the apostles to the church, 
and has regularly descended to them through the 
popes and bishops, etc., and that their traditions super- 
sede the express testimonies of the Scriptures, the 
contents of which most of them are very ignorant of 
I directed them, on the other hand, to Christ, * the 
true Light that enlighteneth every man that cometh 
into the world,' and to His Spirit, * a manifestation of 
which is given to every man,' whose teaching is in per- 
fect harmony with the Scriptures ; for * holy men of 
God spake as they were moved by it ; ' whereas their 
pretended traditions or Popes' decrees are most of 
them contrary to the express language of the Scrip- 
tures. 

" Yet I find amidst such a mist of darkness some 
tender, spiritually minded persons, who, I trust, are 
near the kingdom of God. Our merciful High Priest, 
who is touched with a feeling of our infirmities, has 
regard to the integrity of their hearts. I have had 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 65 

frequent opportunities to open to some of these the 
pure and undefiled way to Hfe everlasting. Their 
hearts rejoice at the glad tidings. Several of these 
are among the nuns. In one convent, their superior, 
being a sensible woman, hears the truth with gladness, 
and gives me opportunities for unfolding the gospel 
to the inmates of her convent. If the priests encour- 
aged them in the right way, by example and precept, 
instead of setting a stumbling-block before them, 
bright instruments might arise from among them. I 
marvel indeed how, under their present circumstances, 
I can have so open a door with them ; ecclesiastics 
have endeavored to represent me to them as a very 
dangerous person, out of the pale of the Romish 
Church, and that out of the Roman Catholic and 
Apostolic Church there is no salvation. But these 
pious persons say that it is the true and everlasting 
gospel that I declare to them, and their confidence in 
their priests is shaken. 

" This has been the case with my beloved mother. 
She felt such concern on my account, thinking that, 
according to the representations of the priests, I must 
be finally lost, as a heretic, that she had them to say 
masses on my behalf, and paid also money that prayers 
might be put up on my account ; not satisfied with 
that, she urged me to accompany her to her confessor, 
a monk in whom she placed great confidence, hoping 
he would convert me to the Papists' faith. To satisfy 
her, I yielded to her request. But great was her dis- 
appointment when she saw that, instead of using the 
argumei:)ts she expected to convince me, he gave way 



G6 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

to bitter invectives and reflections, because I would 
not fight, refused to take oaths, etc. I brought for- 
ward clear Scripture passages, as authority, from the 
positive commands of Christ the Lord, whom we are 
to obey in all things, adducing also the apostles and 
the practices of the primitive believers. Then he 
gave way to anger, so that he could proceed no 
further, and being worked up into a passion, I left 
him in that state. After wc got out, my beloved 
mother lifted up her hands in astonishment at conduct 
so unbecoming the Christian professor ; and from that 
time her mind has been much more open to receive 
the truth. Like the noble Bereans, she peruses and 
searches diligently the Scriptures, a copy of which I 
have given her, to know if these things are so. 

" I continued at and about Brives thus engaged, 
amidst many secret and more public trials, till the 6th 
of Eleventh Month. I then went to Limoges, the 
place of my nativity. My being here revives many 
past occurrences, and awakens feelings of humble 
gratitude for the mercy and power of the blessed 
Saviour who so long bore with me, and waited to be 
gracious to my then impenitent soul. It also brings 
to view the many sufferings that my beloved parents 
have endured, even from persons who have been 
amongst their greatest intimates. I felt nothing but 
love. Christian love, towards them, and in this I have 
visited several of them ; one of them, the Mayor of 
the cit^', who had been among the greatest persecutors 
of my family during the Revolution, told me, in allu- 
sion to those days, '.We have in your absence acted 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 67 

more like ferocious beasts than men, — much less 
Christians.' 

" On the 9th, I went to Bellac, to my beloved sister 
De Boise's ; there, or in the neighborhood, I stayed 
till the 27th. I had some interesting religious meet- 
ings and opportunities. One of these was with one 
of my old tutors in my father's house, whom I visited 
at the college of Magnac. He is a priest, and the 
head of the college ; he was much pleased to see his 
former pupil, and manifested more liberality than it is 
common to find among that class of men. My dear 
sister is one who is less under the shackles of super- 
stition than most. I have great comfort in being 
with her. 

" I returned to Limoges on the 28th, where, my 
dear Master opening a door for preaching the unsearch- 
able riches of Christ, I continued till the 14th of Twelfth 
Month. I had many public as well as private religious 
seasons, so that many of the priests became much 
alarmed. It being the time when some of their 
renowned orators who had come from a distance 
preach every da)^ I was made the subject of discourse, 
in a large church. Their church was represented as 
in the most critical state; Buonaparte, it was said, 
had sent for me, from the remote parts of America, 
to undermine, and if possible, to destroy their holy 
religion. Such representations excited the public 
curiosity still more, and brought many more to the 
meetings I held. Others also pay me private visits, 
some from curiosity only, but others from a disposition 
to come to the knowledge of the truth. Among these 



OS STEPHEN GRELLET, 

some of the nuns that I have visited have manifested 
great tenderness ; but it is very hard for them to be 
emancipated from the fear of their priests. I have 
had several conferences with some of the latter, but 
very few of them to satisfaction, for want of their 
keeping in Christian temper. One of them, however, 
must be excepted, — the teacher of theology in the 
Priests' Seminary. I was also with another who, 
before the Revolution, was their renowned preacher. 
During the Revolution, before the rude, lawless mul- 
titude, he publicly reviled and blasphemed the Divine 
character of our Lord Jesus Christ, trampled upon 
the Christian religion, turning it into ridicule, and told 
them, 'These forty years have I been deceiving you 
and myself,' and then gave way, with the multitude, 
to acts of vileness and profanity, defiling their altars, 
and setting up the goddess of reason (as they called 
a young woman) upon them. I did not know then 
who the man was. There was a company present of 
about forty persons, when, in a mild, becoming man- 
ner, he inquired into my views on the nature of the 
fall of man, and of his restoration through Jesus 
Christ, baptism and their various sacraments, the 
Eucharist, etc. ; also, into the nature of true gospel 
ministry and worship, what constitutes the true church 
of Christ, etc. After I had distinctly answered him 
on every one of these important subjects, and some 
others, he told the company present in a solemn, 
impressive manner, 'You have heard this day more 
true gospel divinity than you have ever done before, 
or, may be, ever shall again.' I find that this man, 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME, 69 

after having gone to such a length in infideHty, saw 
his errors, and the errors of the Church of Rome, 
which he had so zealously espoused before. There- 
fore, though pressed by the clergy to resume his 
former duties, and even to accept greater preferment, 
he declined ; he also refused to deliver, at the Bishop's 
request, his manuscripts of sermons, that they might 
be preached again, stating that they were written when 
his mind was in darkness, and understood not the 
great truths of Christianity, as he now beheld them. 

" I might write much of the various steps taken by 
some of the priests, or their agents, to try to gain me 
to their ways : sometimes they would make great 
promises of the Church's honors and preferments, 
which should be bestowed upon me, if I would 
embrace their opinions ; then again, they poured out 
upon me their anathemas, etc. I have also frequently 
had to encounter open Deists, and even Atheists. 

" I returned to Brives the 14th of the First Month, 
1808, and continued thereabouts till the 23d, having 
some large meetings. I then Avent to Bordeaux, by 
the way of Bergerac. My way in Bordeaux is much 
shut up, though I have the comfort of being with my 
dear brother Joseph, who, for the present, resides in 
this city. 

" The almost uninterrupted wars in which this nation 
has been involved for some years past, together with 
the oppressive system of the conscription, have brought 
obvious desolation and distress over the face of the 
country. In many places comparatively few men, 
besides those in public offices, are to be seen, except 



70 STEPUEN GRELLET. 

those maimed by the war, or the aged; so that females 
have to perform, out of doors, a great part of the 
laborious work that generally devolves upon men. 
My heart is also often made sad in beholding the 
bands of young conscripts, marching towards the army, 
now preparing to invade Spain. 

" Day and night my mind is turned towards Buona- 
parte. O could I plead with him ! could I bring him 
to feel and see, as I do, the horror and misery he is 
accumulating upon man, and the vices and immorali- 
ties he causes poor unwary youth to be involved in I 
I have made several trials to procure passports to go 
to Paris, but cannot obtain them, yet I have not told 
anybody the concern I feel for the Emperor. If this 
is a service that the Lord has for me, He is all-powerful 
to open a door for it — into His hands I commit my 
self 

*' I have found here a few pious Christians. Among 
others an aged nun, who manifests much humility and 
brokenness of heart ; she is acquainted with inward 
watchfulness and prayer; it is her soul's delight 
silently to wait upon the Lord, and to meditate on 
His law. She finds, she says, far more consolation in 
this silent exercise before God, than in any outward 
performance ; yet the rules of her Order require that 
she should read every day the Breviary, a long form 
of prayers and collects in Latin, of which she hardly 
understands a word. She laments the more her situa- 
tion as she knows of none about her who understand 
the nature of her soul's exercise and travail ; she is 
even afraid they should know it. I had a sweet op- 



VISIT TO HIS PATERNAL HOME. 71 

portunity with her; the language of encouragement 
flowed towards her. I have also had several relieving 
meetings with small select companies." * 

The military rule and repressive despotism of Napo- 
leon were now felt everywhere in France. Of relig- 
ious liberty there was none. It was a remarkable 
fact that Mr. Grellet, at such a time of fierce oppres- 
sion and wasting, should have had access to Roman 
Catholics and Protestants in every place he visited. 
In his happy freedom from theological restraints, we 
have just seen him remark, "Amidst much darkness 
I find some who are near to the kingdom of God, and 
our merciful High Priest has regard to the integrity 
of their hearts." Has not this always been seen ? 
" God is on the look out for the right intent," and this 
man of God was made a messenger of direction to 
these persons who in that terrible time had their faces 
to the light. No doubt his pure French, polished 
manners, and impressive presence carried influence, 



* Six years after these events he was again in Brives, and 
remarks: — "I am much comforted in being permitted to be 
again with my beloved aged mother, who, since I was here, 
has, under the teachings of the grace of God, made further 
advances in vital Christianity; the scales of superstition that 
were once upon her eyes have now fallen off; her hope and 
confidence are no longer in the priests, or the Pope, but in the 
Lord Jesus Christ alone ; her delight is to read the Scriptures, 
a copy of which (in French) I left with her on my previous 
visit. Among the pious persons 1 visited soon after my coming 
here, were the nuns of the hospital, with whom I had such 
precious seasons of the Lord's favor six years ago. Their 
aged and venerable Superior continued in the greenness of 
the Divine life, manifesting Christian meekness and humility." 
Many of the sisters continued to read the Scriptures left with 
them, and were now truly pious persons. 



72 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

but the sway he exerted, on this his first visit to Eu- 
rope, was mainly owing to his godly sincerity, and to 
that self-abnegation which opens a channel for th« 
outflowing to men of Divine love. 

His way for remaining longer in France not being 
further open, and his purpose of visiting his own 
family having been accomplished,, he returned to the 
United States and to Mrs. Grellet. 

Before closing this chapter let a word of encourage- 
ment be given to Christian hearts whose absorbing 
solicitude is the conversion unto Christ of those re- 
lated to them by family ties. Stephen Grellet learnt 
that his father had laid aside the pride of rank, and 
the bitterness awakened by popular tryanny, and had 
come with a childlike teachableness to the Scriptures 
of truth. He saw his mother no longer influenced by 
her strong prejudices against Protestantism, but, during 
the latter years of her life, finding in the Saviour a 
perfect rest, and beautiful saintliness. He rejoiced over 
his brothers, and other members of the family, who, 
with candid simplicity, received the testimony he bore 
to them. While, however, we note how his prayer 
for them " availed much," do we not learn that the 
prayer which prevails is that of the righteous man, 
who with the t'enderest and most yearning love lays 
the suit for dear ones on the heart of Infinite Grace ? 
Pleasant moreover to all of us, as we turn our thoughts 
to availing intercession, to strengthen ourselves by 
the assurance of inspiration, " We have an Advocate 
with the Father, J esiis Christ the righteoicsT 



CHAPTER VII. 

'^ INSTANT IN SEASON, OUT OF SEASONS 

ALTHOUGH It is quite customary for the Society 
of Friends to defray the expenses of their 
members who travel in the service of the gospel, and 
although Stephen Grellet might have availed himself 
of this willing aid, with characteristic disinterestedness 
he declined to do so. 

" The Lord has so blessed me," was the grateful 
record of this devoted servant, " that to His praise be 
it acknowledged, I have gone on my own charges 
throughout all the extensive religious journeys I have 
to this time taken ; though some of these have been 
expensive; my journey through France, and crossing 
the sea, especially so ; and on this continent I have 
lost three horses. But I have only thus returned to 
my blessed Master, in His service, what He has 
bountifully bestowed upon me. My friends in New 
York would have paid my passage across the sea, but 
I could not consent to it." 

Marvellous Is the record of his labors from this 

time in every direction. We find him resisting a 

rationalistic movement commenced by a Quaker of 

the name of Ellas Hicks, which had, twenty years 

afterwards, a fatal development among many in false 

(73) 



74 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

doctrine, coldness of religious life, worldliness of 
habit, and a quenching of the zeal and philanthrophy 
which had hitherto distinguished the Friends. Stephen 
Grellet withstood, as he was able, the beginnings of 
the defection. At a Yearly Meeting in New York, in 
May, 1808, he felt it his duty to expose the subtle 
fallacies of an acute but shallow school of thinkers, 
to forewarn of the results that would follow a devia- 
tion from the distinctive teaching of Scripture as to 
the eternal glory of the Redeemer, and to vindicate 
the doctrinal soundness of the Protestant Confessions 
which had hitherto been maintained by the Society. 
For a comparatively young man this was a bold 
course to take, but the wisdom of it was subsequently 
justified. Of himself, however, he says: "Lie low, 
O my soul ! abide in humility and n;eekness before 
the Lord thy Redeemer, whom thou hast so fre- 
quently known to be thy Strength in weakness, thy 
Leader and Deliverer." 

After this he made a tour through the Southern 
and Western American States. Passing through 
Baltimore he came "under great exercise " because of 
the oppression in which the poor slaves were kept. 
At Georgetown the Presbyterian church was opened 
to him ; at Washington the President's wife, Mrs. 
Madison, and her sister attended his services and in- 
vited him to share the hospitality of the White House. 
A striking incident is mentioned by him in his memo- 
randa of this journey. 

" A physician, a tender-spirited man, with much 
feeling related to me the following circumstance. A. 



'^ INSTANT IN SEASON OUT OF SEASONS 75 

few weeks ago, he was sent for "by a planter, who 
resides some miles hence, to visit one of his slaves. 
On entering the miserable cabin in which the sick man 
was, the slave-holder accompanying him, he saw the 
poor slave stretched on a little straw. On examining 
him, he found him in an apparently unconscious and 
state. The master, who was not aware of his low 
condition, began in very abusive language to upbraid 
and threaten him, using very coarse epithets ; he said 
* By pretending to be religious, and going to your 
meetings, you have got this sickness ; but^ as soon as 
you are better, I will cure you with a thousand lashes.' 
The physician told him that from all appearances, the 
poor man had but a few moments to live : — upon which, 
the slave suddenly raised himself, lifted up his eyes, 
and, stretching forth his hands, said in an audible voice, 
' I thank Thee, Lord Jesus, my blessed Redeemer, 
for all Thy mercies to Thy poor servant ; now receive 
my spirit into Thy kingdom ; ' and then expired. The 
scene was awful ; the slave-holder stood speechless 
and amazed ; amidst his threats and reproaches, his 
poor slave was taken out of his power ; he could 
oppress him no longer, his spirit had triumphantly 
quitted its afflicted tenement. The slave holder and the 
physician both remained silent about ten minutes, and 
without uttering a word the latter mounted his horse 
and left the place, with impressions that continued 
deep upon him, as he related the circumstance to me." 
In Richmond, Virginia, in Petersburg and other 
places, he pleaded the cause of the slaves, as it was 
"often given him to do in these Southern States." 



76 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

Thence he passed through North Carolina and mafty 
parts of the South, unfolding everywhere the truth 
of man's fallen and sinful condition, and of salvation 
through faith in Christ Jesus the Lord. This was, 
we are told, ever his message — " What Christ has done 
for us, and without our aid ; how His meritorious death 
and most holy and acceptable offering of Himself for 
our sins are the way of our reconciliation with God; 
what the eternal Spirit of grace does within us ; how 
through obedience of faith we may be renewed in new- 
ness of life, and finally obtain entrance into the glorious 
kingdom of everlasting blessedness, where Satan the 
grand deceiver and adversary has no more place, and 
the purified spirits can never fall." 

With such a message, adapted to the varied circum- 
stances of his hearers, he held meetings in Methodist 
churches, court houses, and rooms of the Society of 
Friends. Mayors, and the chief inhabitants of towns 
attended and the slaves who went to hear came away 
exclaiming, **This is the everlasting gospel that we 
have heard." 

At Lynchburg, while he was preaching in the court 
house, and denouncing the abominable traffic in human 
flesh, three men entered and sat down before him. 
They were travelling through the country for this 
very traffic, and came into the meeting with the hope 
of finding slaves whom they might purchase. God 
applied the message so to their hearts, and they saw 
in such dark colors the wickedness of their trade, that 
they burst out weeping before the peopl-^ 

Thus we preached throughout Kentucky and Ohio, 



^'INSTANT IX SEASON, OUT OF SEASON.'' 77 

riding on horseback and over bad roads, often mere 
'* Indian paths," from one settlement to another. 
Fatigue, and exposure to heat and changes of the at- 
mosphere, so told upon him that we find him fainting 
at the close of a meeting. For a short time, through 
pressure of disease, his religious engagements were 
suspended. His strength renewed, he took up again 
his testimony, day by day, and after a journey of eight 
months* continuance, returned to New York. There 
he again united with his family in offering gratitude 
and praise, and surrendering themselves afresh to 
" serve their blessed Lord and holy Redeemer." 

On account of the health of Mrs. Grellet, a home 
had been secured away from the city, in the village of 
Greenwich, At this place lived the notorious Thomas 
Paine, whose infidel works, especially the *' Age of 
Reason," which affirmed that the Bible taught nothing 
but "lies, obscenity, cruelty and injustice," had had a 
most baleful eujct in America and Great Britain in 
the early part of this century. An authentic account 
of the last days of such a man may have some histori- 
cal interest. Stephen Grellet thus notices his decease. 

" I may not omit recording here the death of 
Thomas Paine. A few days previous to my leaving 
home on my last religious visit, on hearing that he 
was ill, and in a very destitute condition, I went to 
see him, and found him in a vv^retched state ; for he 
had been so neglected, and forsaken by his pretended 
fi lends, that the common attentions to a sick man had 
been withheld from him. The skin of his body Avas 
in some places worn off, Avhich greatly increased his 



78 . STEPHEN GRELLET, 

sufTferings. A nurse was provided for him, and some 
needful comforts were supplied. He was mostly in a 
state of stupor, but something that had passed between 
us had made such an impression upon him, that some 
days after my departure he sent for me, and, on being 
told that I was gone from home, he sent for another 
Friend. This induced a valuable young Friend (Mary 
Rascoe), who had resided in my family, and continued 
at Greenwich during part of my absence, frequently 
to go and take him some little refreshment suitable 
for an invalid, furnished by a neighbor. Once when 
she was there, three of his deistical associates came 
to the door, and in a loud, unfeeling manner said, 
' Tom Paine, it is said you are turning Christian, but 
Ave hope you will die as you have lived ; ' and then 
went away. On which, turning to Mary Rascoe, he 
said, * You see what miserable comforters they are.' 

" Once he asked her if she had ever read any of 
his writings, and on being told that she had read but 
very little of them, he inquired what she thought of 
them, adding, ' from such a one as you I expect a cor- 
rect answer.' She told him that when very young his 
*Age of Reason' was put into her hands, but that the 
more she read in it, the more dark and distressed she 
felt, and she threw the book into the fire. ' I wish all 
had done as you,' he replied : ' for if the Devil has 
ever had any agency in any work, he has had it in 
my writing that book.' When going to carry him 
some refreshment, she repeatedly heard him uttering 
the language, ' O Lord ! Lord God ! ' or, ' Lord Jesus ! 
have mercy upon me ! ' 



^'INSTANT IN SEASON OUT OF SEASON" 79 

" It is well known that during some weeks of his 
illness, when a little free from bodily pain, he wrote a 
great deal ; this his nurse told me ; and Mary Rascoe 
repeatedly sazu him writing. If his companions in 
infidelity had found anything to support the idea that 
on his death-bed he continued to espouse their cause, 
would they not eagerly have published it? But not 
a word is said : there is a total secrecy as to what has 
become of these writings." 

There is ground for believing that Paine's infidel 
associates came into possession of these papers, and 
finding that they contained a retractation of his former 
opinions, destroyed them. All we would say is, --= 
Happy are the writers who, 

•* Dying, leave no line they wish to blot." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. 

IT was in the ordering of Divine Providence that 
Stephen Grellet, from the autumn of 1809 to the 
summer of 181 1, remained in New York engaged in 
business, and confining his reHgious labors chiefly 
to the city. It was the will of God that Paul, on 
his arrival in Europe, should first teach the women 
gathered for prayer by the river side in Philippi, and 
afterwards make tents at Corinth. Following in the 
footsteps of the apostle in business and ministry, Mr. 
Grellet's thoughts once more turned to the interests 
of the Society of Friends, and to the cause of God in 
Europe. The inward conviction arose that he might 
first be able to enter upon a mission of encouragement 
and testimony in the British Isles. It was a time of 
wars, dear food, sore privation, and universal distress. 
He therefore sailed to Liverpool, and continued in this 
country about two years. The whole period was a 
perpetual ministry in public and private. While it 
was chiefly in the meeting-houses of Friends and in 
attendance on their periodic assemblies that he min- 
istered, his labors were not confined to any restricted 
circle. In those years of heavy trouble and alarm he 

spoke in other Christian churches, and did this 

(80) 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. 81 

throughout England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, 
In every place his visit brought comfort, stimulus and 
revival. His words were clothed with remarkable 
power. Never did a man more abide in union with 
God, and the Divine Spirit attended him everywhere. 
He urged in Great Britain the practical duties of 
Christianity; unfolded the nature of pure and undefiled 
religion; insisted on the duty of ben'fevolence and self- 
sacrifice on behalf of sufferers, and the oppressed; 
pressed upon Christians that they should seek to have 
fulfilled in them the Divine promise — " they shall be 
all taught of God," and exhorted to the searching of 
the Scriptures which testify of Christ. 

It is not easy to estimate the value of such a mission 
by a man so eminently filled with the Spirit of grace 
and wisdom. Revival preachers of these later years 
have sometimes failed to utter the whole mind of God. 
They have exalted the grace of the gospel, but have 
not set forth its holy requirements. The gospel does 
nothing satisfactory for a man if it does not deliver 
the heart from the self-direction of sin, and produce in 
the life a loving loyalty towards God. It was through 
the foresight of the Almighty Father that Stephen 
Grellet gave a testimony throughout the British Isles 
remarkably suited to the period. This great nation 
was soon to enter upon a new era of national justice 
and righteousness. The evils and hypocrisy of the 
Test and Corporation Acts were to be extinguished ; 
the disintegrations, alienations, and heartburnings of 
Koman Catholic restrictions and of Jewish disabilities 
were to be abolished ; the rights of the subject, and 



82 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

the recognition of the rising importance of the great 
commercial towns of the kingdom, were to be ac- 
knowledged by reform in Parliament; the abominations 
and selfish cruelties of colonial slavery, that "sum of 
all villanies," were to be swept away ; .intercourse with 
all the nations of the world was to be opened, and the 
tax put upon the bread-corn of the people, as it 
entered our ports, was to be repealed by the intro- 
duction of Free Trade ; and, with all, education was 
to arrest ignorance, to roll back a threatening tide of 
barbarism, and to prepare the nation for its future 
destiny. Above all others the members of the intel- 
ligent Society of Friends have contributed to the 
accomplishment of these magnificent achievements. 
Their adhesion to these projects has been unflinching, 
and singularly unanimous. Their attachment has been 
always decided and steadfast. They have brought to 
the carrying of these great ameliorating measures a 
weight of character, an integrity of purpose, and a self- 
sacrifice, which it is impossible adequately to estimate. 
Without heat or noise, their influence has been power- 
fully pervasive in the struggles and conflicts which 
have secured blessings of such vast import to this land, 
and to every land under the sun. 

Is it too much to suppose that the ministry of 
Stephen Grellet in almost every county of the kingdom 
prepared the sons in Quaker families for that firm and 
persistent action put forth in the years which followed 
his visit ? The action was more than political. An 
irreligious politician is often found unreliable. The 
Society of Friends regarded the cause of popular edu- 



FIRST VISIT TO GREA T BRITAIN. 83 

cation in England as philanthropic and religious. 
Their devotion to this national question was the earliest^ 
and has never wavered for more than half a century. 
To them belongs the honor of being the first to petition 
for the abolition of the slave trade, and afterwards for 
that of slavery itself Their sacrifices, devotion, and 
most pronounced hostility to colonial slavery con- 
tributed largely to the final victory. Their unswerving 
advocacy of the most complete rights of conscience, 
and of political justice, was not merely sustained by 
their high probity and weight of character, but, as in 
the case of their philanthropic labors, was always 
based upon religions principle. It may justly be 
thought that Mr. Grellet's powerful and most Christian 
addresses and influence, in the periodic meetings and 
private circles of the Friends, signally conduced to 
these great results. 

The bare enumeration of the places at which he 
held meetings would occupy much space. In the 
eastern, northern, and western counties ; in large cities 
like Liverpool, Hull, Birmingham, Leeds, Bradford, 
and Newcastle ; in Edinburgh, and the towns of Scot- 
land ; in Dublin and the counties of Ireland ; and in 
different parts of the Principality of Wales, he was 
welcomed and listened to as a minister of God. In 
Newcastle, under the impulse of a " great concern " 
that came upon him, he held meetings for the colliers 
and those employed in furnaces and glasshouses. 
" Divine love was in an extraordinary manner expe- 
rienced over these assemblies." In Birmingham the 
large Independent meeting-house was opened to hirn ; 



84 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

" the concourse of people was very great." The house 
was crowded, and many remained out of doors. " A 
Divine solemnity was spread over the multitude. The 
Spirit gave strength and qualification to proclaim 
what the Christian religion is." At Northampton the 
Friends' meeting-house was filled half an hour before 
the service began ; not one-fifth of the people assem- 
bled could obtain admittance. The meeting-house in 
which Dr. Philip Doddridge once ministered was 
immediately opened to the crowd. In Scotland the 
Presbyterians in a similar manner opened their 
churches. In Bradford, Yorkshire, and the neighbor- 
hood, day by day he ministered, and then when cast 
down sang, — 

" In cares and fears and doubts, 
Which oft assail my mind, 
When they are left to Thee, O Lord, 
The best relief I find." 

In Cambridgeshire he came to Stilton Barracks, 
wherein were confined about 6000 French prisoners. 
He spoke to them in his, and their, native language, 
and they exclaimed, " Our souls are full of gratitude 
to the Lord, who has put it into your heart thus to 
think of us and feel for us." French prisoners of war 
were also addressed by him in other parts of the 
kingdom. 

As Paul's spirit was stirred in him when he found 
himself amid the idolatry of Athens, so was Stephen 
Grellet's in London. The emotions awakened pre- 
pared him for his great mission in the British capital 
He records ; 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. 85 

" I soon felt the heavy gospel bonds awaiting me 
in this metropolis to be rapidly fastening upon me. 
The depth of exercise into which I was introduced on 
account of the various classes of its inhabitants is 
indescribable. Rich and poor, but especially the last, 
including not only those in the city at large and in 
the various poorhouses, but also the inmates of prisons 
and places where many are confined because of their 
various crimes, rested heavily upon me. Many sleep- 
less nights I passed, as the objects of these exercises 
and baptisms were developed to my view, and it was 
given me clearly to see that I must stand prepared to 
engage in whatever line of service my great Lord and 
Master was pleased to require of me. For such a 
purpose, I felt, he had raised me up from a most abject 
state, and had now sent me here. The awful conse- 
quences that would attend me should I be unfaithful, 
and attempt, like Jonah, to flee from the presence of 
the Lord, were in an appalling manner set before me. 
On the other hand, the gracious promise was renewed, 
that if, in simplicity of heart, I resigned myself to the 
Lord's guidance and requirings, without consulting 
with flesh and blood. He would be with me, would 
make way for me and uphold me. Thus I was enabled 
again to offer myself and my all to the Lord and His 
service, not in this great city only, but also to go on 
the European continent, or wheresoever He might 
call me or His Spirit might lead me. Great peace and 
quietness I felt after this full offering was made ; yet 
the weight of my chain was not thereby lessened, or 
the cup I was to drink rendered less bitter; neither 



86 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

was my concern for the members of our own Society- 
decreased by what I felt for the people at large." 

His field of labor in London was in every circle. 
He was found urging the sons and daughters of 
Quakers to lead lives of sympathy with Christ and 
men; he attended meetings of the nobility which were 
specially called for his engagements ; he met Jews in 
Devonshire House, Houndsditch; the thieves, pick- 
pockets and abandoned women were gathered into 
the Friends' meeting-house in St. Martin's Lane, and 
of these he says : 

" My mind was at first brought under great dejec- 
tion and distress on beholding before me so many 
fellow-beings, of both sexes, in whose countenances 
so much vice and depravity were depicted, some of 
whom, perhaps, had never been in a meeting for wor- 
ship, and were strangers to religious sensibility. They 
were mostly young people. I wept bitterly over them; 
but the love of Christ, w^ho came to seek and to save 
that which was lost, filled my soul and prepared me, 
not only to proclaim against sin and the consequences 
of living and dying in sin, but also to preach Christ 
the Saviour of sinners. Oh, it was a solemn time 
indeed; the Lord's power was over us; the lofty heads, 
the proud looks were brought down. I have seldom 
known such brokenness, and so general, as it was that 
evening. The meeting remained in the same state 
during the silence after I had sat down, a silence only 
interrupted by the sobbings or deep sighs of some of 
them. At the conclusion, the people retired in the 
same quietness. Oh, what a display of the Lord's 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. $7 

power and mercy ! Surely our hearts can but over- 
flow with gratitude to Him, our blessed and sure 
Helper." 

Ah ! this preparation of the preacher — the " soul 
greatly moved ; " the '' weeping bitterly over " these 
degraded ones — this was the fruit of his oneness with 
the Lord in sympathy and love, and helps us to 
understand the brokenness of heart of these outcasts. 

To set forth more fully this ministry of mercy, an 
extract from the Journal must be given: 

" The chief police magistrate in London, hearing 
of that meeting through some of our Friends, sent 
me word that if I wished to see that class of people 
more generally throughout the city, he would take 
measures to have them all collected, when opportunity 
would be given me to have meetings with them. I 
acknowledged his kind offer, but could not accept it, 
though I told him I should be obliged by his giving 
me free access to the several prisons in London, having 
felt much drawn towards that class of poor, wretched 
humanity. My request was readily granted, and I 
engaged very soon in the trying service. 

*' The Compters [since abolished] were the prisons 
I visited first; there is one in each district of the 
metropolis. They are places to which the offenders, 
when taken up day by day, are committed, and from 
which they are transferred to other prisons according 
to the nature of their offences. When in the morning 
I visited these prisons, I was astonished at the number 
I found, who had been taken up during the preceding 



88 STEPHEN GRELLJ^T. 

night. I had some very striking religious opportun- 
ities with them. 

After that, I proceeded with a visit to Newgate, 
which occupied some days, having religious services 
in the many separate apartments, where the miserable 
inmates are confined. Several were under sentence 
of death. In one cell there were four together who 
were to be executed the ensuing morning ; one of 
these particularly drew forth our tender feelings — my 
dear friend, William Forster, being with me. His 
wife, with two children, came to see him for the last 
time when we were there. One of the children was a 
boy, about eight years of age. The awfulness of the 
sight of his father under heavy irons, with the other 
prisoners, his emotion from knowing that his father 
was to be brought to the gallows the next day, together 
with the gloominess of the prison, brought the child 
into a state of great terror and distress. P. Bedford 
knew the grandparents of this child, pooi* weavers, 
but people of piety. We felt it our place to visit 
them the day after the execution of their son. We 
were much instructed in beholding that, in their very 
deep grief, they were sustained by the comforts of the 
Christian religion. The Lord Jesus was their refuge 
and strength under their great and sore trouble. They 
produced a letter written by the poor prodigal the 
night previous to his execution, addressed to his wife 
and to his parents. After describing his heartfelt 
repentance for his crime, and the hope that, notv/ith- 
standing his great unworthiness, the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who had mercy on the penitent thief on the cross, 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN, 89 

would condescend to be merciful to him, he most 
earnestly begged his aged parents to forgive him also. 
He described his evil life as being the consequence of 
his disobedience to them, and .particularly in having 
disregarded the due observance of the Sabbath, so 
contrary to their parental entreaties. Having begun 
to do so in the afternoon, it had led him into evil 
company, and step by step he had become the com* 
panion of thieves. He most earnestly entreated his 
wife to guard very particularly the children from such 
dangerous and ungodly practices, and to spend the 
afternoons and evenings of the Sabbath in attending 
religious meetings, and reading the Bible and books 
of devotion. We found in the boy above mentioned 
so much sensibility that our interest in him became 
excited, some kind friends assisting in having him 
sent to school. 

" In the course of the visit through Newgate we 
found many boys who, decoyed into vice by thieves 
and pickpockets, and now mixing in prison with older 
and depraved men, were likely to come out thence far 
greater adepts in crime. We felt much for those poor 
youths, and seeing the necessity of having them kept 
separate from other criminals, we succeeded in inducing 
the sheriff and magistrates to have another part of the 
prison appropriated to them. P. Bedford took an 
active interest in the concern, and several of our young 
men Friends enlisted in it, with great advantage. 

" The visit to that part of Newgate which is occu- 
pied by the women prisoners had very nearly been 
frustrated. The jailor endeavored to prevent my going 



90 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

there, representing them as so unruly and desperate 
that they would surely do me some mischief; he had 
endeavored in vain to reduce them to order, and said 
he could not be responsible for what they might do 
to me, concluding that the very least I might expect 
was to have my clothes torn off. I felt persuaded that 
He who called me to this service could make way for 
me and preserve me. Very earnest was my prayer to 
have evidence that this was a service that the Lord 
required of me, feeliag that my having visited the men 
was not a reason, why I should visit the women also. 
The path of duty being clear before me, I proceeded 
to the prison. When I came to the small yard, the 
only accommodation for about four or five hundred 
women, I found there some who immediately recog- 
nized me as having seen me in the Compters, and who 
appeared much pleased at my now coming here. They 
told me that no preparation had been made to receive 
me, but that they would immediately do what they 
could towards it. Owing to the darkness of the morn- 
ing the prisoners had been unusually late in getting 
up, and many of them had not yet risen. They occu- 
pied two long rooms, where they slept in three tiers, 
some on the floor, and two tiers of hammocks over 
one another. They had the whole soon rolled up, 
and all the women came together in one room. When 
I first entered, the foulness of the air was almost in- 
supportable, and everything that is base and depraved 
was so strongly depicted on the faces of the women 
who stood crowded before me, with looks of effrontery, 
boldness, and wantonness of expression, that, for a 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. ^1 

while, my soul was greatly dismayed ; surely then did 
I witness that the Lord is a refuge and strength, His 
truth is a shield and a buckler. The more I beheld 
the awful consequences of sin, and the more deeply I 
felt the greatness of the depravity into which these 
poor objects had been plunged by the devices of Satan, 
the more also I felt the love of Christ who has come 
to save and has died for sinners. As I began to speak, 
under the feeling sense of this redeeming love of Christ, 
their countenances began to alter: soon they hung down 
their heads ; their haughtiness and proud looks were 
brought low, and tears in abundance were seen to flow; 
great was the brokenness of heart manifested on this 
occasion. I inquired of them iT there were any other 
female prisoners in the place, and was told that several 
sick ones were upstairs. On going up, I was aston- 
ished beyond description at the mass of woe and misery 
I beheld. I found many very sick, lying on the bare 
floor or on some old straw, having very scanty cover- 
ing over them, though it was quite cold ; and there 
were several children born in the prison among them, 
almost naked. 

" On leaving that abode of wretchedness and misery, 
I went to Mildred's Court, to my much valued friend, 
Elizabeth J. Fry, to whom I described, out of the ful- 
ness of my heart, what I had just beheld, stating also 
that something must be done immediately for those 
poor suffering children. The appeal, to such a pious 
and sensible mind as dear Elizabeth possesses, was 
not in vain. She immediately sent for several pieces 
of flannel, and had speedily collected a number of our 



92 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

young women Friends, who went to work with such 
diligence, that on the very next day she repaired to 
the prison with a bundle of made-up garments for the 
naked children. What she then saw of the wretched- 
ness o{ that prison induced her to devise some plan 
towards the amelioration of the condition of these poor 
women, and, if possible, the reform of their morals." 

It is very interesting to find that Mrs. Fry received 
from this visit the incentive to her efforts on behalf of 
the female prisoners of Newgate, and to a service in 
this direction never surpassed in the history of Chris- 
tian benevolence, and almost unparalleled in its 
ameliorating and saving results. It is recorded that 
for many years this lady's first question, on awaking 
in the morning, Avas, " What shall I do for my Lord 
to-day?" It is also to be noted that few among 
Friends have been more eminent than Mrs. Fry's 
brother, Joseph John Gurney, and her sister Priscilla 
Gurney, who with her dying words laid on the heart 
of Thomas Fowell Buxton the solemn claim to his life 
devotion of the seven hundred thousand slaves in 
British colonies. The parents of three such children 
did much by their training to serve the generation 
that came after them. The labors of Mrs. Fry in 
Newgate, the impulse to which she received from Mr. 
Grellet, are now historical. The sway of her sympa- 
thetic influence, aided by a voice whose modulations 
carried the force of every word she uttered, and whose 
tender tones melted the hardest and most stubborn 
hearts, was manifested when the Lord Mayor after- 
wards conducted into that same female ward the King 



FIRST VISIT TO GREAT BRITAIN. 93 

of Prussia, and when the monarch and the prisoners 
alike knelt in bowed reverence, as Mrs. Fry poured 
forth her supplication and thanksgiving unto God. 
In her case, as in that of Stephen Grellet, we have the 
evidence how the Lord of love and compassion makes 
His self-less servants to be partakers of His own nature 
in such a way that they can reveal His yearning pity 
for lost sinners, and His willingness to deliver from 
Satan and from sin. How weighty in warning and 
encouragement are those Avords of Jehovah respecting 
the prophets of Israel, as they are indeed true respect- 
ing the servants of Christ in all after times : ** If they 
had stood in My counsel^ and had caused My people to 
hear My words ^ theii they shoidd have turned them from 
their evil way, and from the evil of their doings!' 

" The world's a room of sickness where each heart 
Knows its own anguish and unrest ! 
The truest wisdom then, and noblest art, 

Is his who skills of comfort best ; 
Whom by the softest step and gentlest tone 

Enfeebled spirits own, 
And love to raise the languid eye, 
When like an angel's wing they feel him fleeting by.'* 



CHAPTER IX. 

SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 

MR. SEEBOHM has justly said : It is not easy 
to realize the condition of the continent of 
Europe in 1813. There were neither railroads nor 
telegraph wires; the freedom o{ friendly intercourse 
between the different States of Europe had long been 
interrupted ; superstition and infidelity, vice and wicked- 
ness, had spread to an alarming extent ; religion was 
driven into seclusion, and with many Christianity had 
become little more than an empty name ; international 
feuds and jealousies had rendered the system of police 
and passport regulations exceedingly annoying, and 
painfully restrictive to individual liberty ; travelling 
was difficult, and often dangerous. Though Napoleon 
had been compelled to retire from Russia, the French 
war was still raging with unabated, if not with increased 
fury, and great excitement prevailed abroad. To go 
forth, under such circumstances, and alone, " as an 
ambassador of peace to the nations, while the sword 
bereaved on every hand," was no small trial of faith and 
of faithfulness. But Stephen Grellet knew Him in whom 
he had believed. He had counted the cost, and did not 
flinch in the day of trial ; the sacrifice which he had 

" bound to the horns of the altar " was not withdrawn, 

(94) 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 95 

The attendance at another Yearly Meeting of 
Friends in London, previous to entering upon such a 
service, was a matter of pecuHar interest to him. He 
had received the full sanction of his brethren in Amer- 
ica to his present undertaking in the service of the 
gospel of Christ ; but, being now within the compass 
of another Yearly Meeting in a distant land, he sought 
its unity and concurrence before he passed beyond its 
limits to carry out his gospel mission in some parts of 
the European continent. 

At the Yearly Meeting for ministers and elders, the 
17th of May, 18 1 3, he informed the Friends that he 
apprehended the time had nearly come for him to en- 
deavor to pass over into France, if practicable, to fulfil 
there, and in other parts of the continent, whatever 
service the Lord might call for at his hands. A great 
solemnity prevailed over the meeting during the con- 
sideration and deliberation on the important subject. 
Many Friends expressed their tender sympathy and 
full unity, believing that this v/as a work to which the 
great Head of the church, our Lord Jesus Christ, called 
him in the service of His gospel. They gave him a 
written testimonial, recommending him to the kind 
and Christian sympathy and regard of all those among 
whom he might come. 

God was conducting him on wider services than 
those in which he had engaged. He himself says : 
*' I now endeavored to find out some way whereby I 
mi^it pass over to France ; the weight of the work 
the Lord has laid upon me in that land pressing heavily. 
Truly, in my measure, I can say, * I have a baptism to 



96 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

be baptized with, and how am I straitened till it be 
accomplished ! ' O Lord 1 enable Thy poor servant to 
glorify Thy excellent name, into whatever suffering, 
or even death, Thou mayest see meet that he should 
be introduced. 

*' My dear friends accompanied me to Gosport on 
board the Cartel Brillanty bound for Morlaix, with 
forty-one French seamen or soldiers, prisoners of war, 
discharged because of their incapacity for service by 
ill health, etc. We came over the British Channel on 
the 1 8th, but on entering the river our vessel struck 
violently on a rock ; the general outcry on board was 
that the vessel was sinking. I endeavored to have my 
mind centered in filial and reverent submission to the 
Lord's will, should He order that instead of the ser- 
vice I apprehended I was called to, I should lay down 
my life in sight of the land of my nativity. I was 
favored to feel His Divine presence near, and an as- 
surance that His omnipotence would not permit the 
loss of a single life on board by this event. I felt 
deeply, however, for m.y fellow passengers ; bitter was 
the lamentation of many of them, who, from their very 
emaciated condition, did not appear to have many 
days to live : ' What ! ' they cried out, with tears trick- 
ling down their furrowed cheeks, * after so much 
suffering, so many narrow escapes in the war, must 
we now perish within sight of beloved France, and 
not be allowed quietly to go and die there ? ' By the 
return of the tide, however, the vessel got off the rcvcks, 
and the next day we vv^ere favored to land safely at 
Morlaix. The officers of police proceeded immedi- 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 97 

ately to a very strict and minute examination of every 
part of my baggage and clothing, and even of my per- 
son ; the lining of my garments, the inner sole of my 
shoes, everything about me underwent a close search, 
to see that I had no secreted papers. That being 
finished, they inquired the object for which I came to 
France ; they perused the certificates given me by 
Friends in America and London, they took notes of 
the whole and sent them to Paris, with my passsorts, 
and told me I must wait for an answer from Paris. 
O Lord ! I am in Thy hands ; by Thy directions and 
the putting forth of Thy Spirit, I have come here ; in 
submission and confidence I wait to see what Thou 
wilt -do for Thy great name ! 

" I now endeavored to see if my blessed Lord and 
Master had not some service for me to accomplish in 
this place. I became acquainted with an old man, 
poor in this world, but who appeared to be no stranger 
to vital religion. He cannot read, but he evinces 
that the law of the Spirit of God is written in his 
heart, and that his delight is to meditate thereon. I 
was soon also introduced to other persons, among 
whom I found spiritual-mindedness. I felt the more 
grateful on meeting with these, and other pious per- 
sons, with whom I had some refreshing and instructive 
religious opportunities, because it was then the time 
when the Papists celebrate what they call * the Feast 
of God.' Thousands of persons had come into the 
town from the country round, and, accompanied by 
their priests, walked through the streets, carrying their 
crosses, and the consecrated wafer, before which they 



98 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

threw flowers and leaves, and burned abundance of 
incense. My soul was grieved at beholding such a 
display of ignorance and idolatry. That evening a 
considerable number of persons having come to my 
inn, the excitement of the day prompted them to 
ascertain my views respecting the display that had 
taken place. This opened the way for unfolding to 
them the great truths of Christianity, contrasting them 
with the pageantry they had seen displayed that day. 

" Having felt my mind drawn towards my fellow- 
passengers from England, who had gone to the 
hospital on their arrival here, I went to visit them, 
accompanied by a pious person, a friend of the 
Superior of the sisters who have the care of the hos- 
pital. I found that several of the men had died shortly 
after they had landed; others were very ill; and some 
appeared to manifest tenderness of spirit and gratitude 
for their escape from a watery grave. Several of the 
nuns having gathered together, with their Superior, 
gave me an opportunity for serious communications 
on things pertaining to the Redeemer's kingdom and 
vital Christianity, Some of their minds were tender. 
I was with them nearly two hours, unfolding Christian 
doctrines. 

" Finding that there were many English prisoners 
in the place, chiefly taken from merchants' vessels, 
leave being given, they were collected together, none 
going in with me but the sworn interpreter and his 
son, to be witnesses on behalf of the police of what I 
should say among them. I found there some piously 
minded persons ; the Lord's presence and power were 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 99 

near; affliction, being shut up in prison, heavy losses 
of property, etc., had tended to prepare their hearts 
to receive the consolations that the religion of Christ 
offers and gives to such as believe in it Many of 
them expressed their gratitude to the Lord for this 
visit of love and consolation to them." 

This passage is quoted as a specimen of the journey 
he made through his native land. Everywhere was 
he harassed by suspicions and police restrictions ; but 
everywhere he found or made opportunities for com- 
forting the sorrowful and speaking of the things of 
the kingdom of God. And it will have been seen 
that no distinction of creed turned him aside from 
this ministry of mercy. He was no bigoted Protestant, 
however grieved he might be with the superstitions of 
Romanism. He knew well that devout, aspiring, and 
even saintly persons might be found in the bosom of 
the Roman Catholic church. 

There is something profoundly affecting in the spec- 
tacle of a lonely Christian man penetrating France in 
this manner at such a terrible time of bloodshed and 
desolation. In every place where he tarried he found 
some hidden disciple of Christ to encourage, and 
some mourners because of war to comfort. He speaks 
of meeting on his way to Paris " companies of poor 
youths, thirty to sixty, fastened two and two to a long 
chain, and marched off to the army. They were such 
as had manifested reluctance to go there." He tells 
us of Toulouse — " it was but a few days since, that, 
after a battle between the English and French armies, 
such a number of wounded soldiers were brought in, 



LafC: 



100 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

that the streets were strewed with them, till places to 
remove them to were prepared ; and so numerous 
were the amputations that, in several parts of the city, 
piles of legs and arms, like heaps of wood, were to 
be seen ! " 

He tarried in cities and villages where these fearful 
things were occurring. No newspaper could report 
these services ; no love of notoriety or personal fame 
could have prompted them. It was only into private 
circles he could enter. The right of assembly, for 
any purpose, haunted like a spectre the ambitious and 
omnipresent militarism of the time. His service was 
like the solitude of the Divine love in its patient 
ministering. He interpreted indeed this love of the 
pitying Father as he went from place to place, seeking 
to mitigate the horrors of that awful time, and to 
keep alive the trembling hope of piety in crushed 
hearts. No wonder however he should exclaim : 
'' If the dead rise not, says the apostle, why are we 
baptized for the dead ? So may not some of us say, 
if there is no hope to see the end of these scenes of 
human misery, anguish and distress, why are we 
brought into the wrestling state ? why do we tread 
the agonizing path ? O Lord, hasten the time when 
men shall learn righteousness! I must however say 
that He who was with His servants in their various 
and fiery trials in ancient days is with me in this land, 
as He has been in my former pilgrimages. He very 
graciously makes good His promise, ' I will never 
leave thee, nor forsake thee.' He keeps my mind, in 
a good degree, stayed upon Him, so that though the 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 101 

sea roar and dash its waves, His everlasting arm is 
near. Most abundantly I can, as I ought to, sing His 
praise, and proclaim His wondrous doings." 

Oh, take heart, ye suffering servants of God in 
these later days ! He is near who would comfort you. 
He bids you ''beware of men," and still serve men. 
Amidst oppositions and fierce trials you are not for- 
gotten of Him. Your efforts, your sighs, your heart 
failings, are known to Him. In a world thL.t is still 
ruled by the powers of darkness, and full of h-uman 
selfishnesses and ambitions, how can ye be under- 
stood? how can ye have your full consolation here? 
Rejoice rather that ye thus by your testimony and 
your patience are learning " the fellowship of the 
sufferings of Christ," and are permitted to be in 
sympathy with Him. 

As Stephen Grellet proceeds on this service, no 
doubt, in France his rank makes a way for him, but 
it is his reputation for piety that has gone before him. 
In Paris he has useful intercourse with suffering 
pastors of the Lutheran and Reformed churches ; has 
interesting conferences with Roman Catholics to 
whom the troubles of the times had brought a spiritual 
•awakening; visits Protestant schools; is visited for 
guidance by many, and among them a Jewess, the 
wife of a man of great wealth, to whom he opens the 
Scripture testimony concerning Jesus ; every day he 
circulates religious books which could not otherwise 
be obtained. At Limoges he spends some days 
among his relatives and has " a long and satisfactory 
opportunity with them." At Brives he is again with 



102 STEPHEN' GRELLET, 

his mother, confirming her and the pious nuns of the 
convent, in their new life of trust and love ; at Rodez 
he has the joy of rehgious meetings with his two 
brothers, his uncle and cousins, and he finds "the 
Truth has never been more endeared to them;" at 
Montpelier he is entertained in the hospitable home 
of his friend, Louis Majolier, and in private meetings 
is able to point families under heavy affliction, on 
account of the death of their sons in the war, to the 
abiding source of rest; at St. Hypolite he is treated 
with the utmost courtesy by the commissary of police, 
who was so rude to him on his former visit, and the 
commissary prepares a spacious building into which 
Protestants and Roman Catholics crowd, to whom he 
preaches "the glorious gospel of life and salvation." 
At Nismes, whither he has proceeded on foot, he is 
.«50on surrounded by about eighty persons, chiefly 
Moravians, and as he is speaking of " the great love 
of God to us through our blessed Redeemer," officers 
of the gendarmerie with some soldiers enter and take 
theii- seats ; but they, with the rest, are constrained to 
" bend their knees with tears and prayers to the Lord 
God and to the Lamb." They had come to apprehend 
him, had been seeking him for several days, but 
report to the prefect that they had never heard any 
one speak in such a manner before. 

Nor was it from the police only he found opposition. 
He was speaking once of " Jesus Christ in us, the 
hope of glory," the minister of the sanctuary, our only 
Saviour^ through whom alone forgiveness of sin can 
be obtained, when two of their priests came in. " One 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 103 

was the Grand Vicar of the Bishop, and seeing that I 
was not a Papist, he soon began to proclaim damnation 
upon me, and upon all those who are out of the pale 
of the Romish church, where -only, said he, by con- 
fession and the pronouncing of absolution, sin could 
be remitted ; repentance and contrition because of our 
sins, he added, were not necessary — attrition alone, 
with the priest's absolution, sufficed ; forms of prayer, 
uttered with the lip, though in language not under- 
stood or in which the heart was not, were nevertheless 
prayers acceptable to God ; so was also the prostration 
of the body before their altars and the images of the 
Virgin Mary, saints, etc., though the heart might be 
lifted up in pride or vanity ; he said, though a priest 
were ever so vicious in his life and conversation, yet 
in virtue of his office, having received at; his ordination 
the keys of heaven, he had power to retain or forgive 
sin at his pleasure, and whatever he says, in his priestly 
capacity, ought to be received and believed as the 
word of Christ, whom he represents. The poor man 
went on to utter so many absurdities that the nuns 
seemed to be astonished at him. I found it in vain 
to say much to him, for, on my attempting to do so, 
he gave way to such passion as seemed to me would 
only lead him to add sin to sin. However absurd 
were these assertions, I have heard many others ad 
vancing the same. I have frequently heard virtuous 
and pious females state what a great trial it was to 
them to have to believe that it was their indispensable 
duty to confess, and still more so when they know 
that the priest to whom they go is a vicious and 



104 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

immoral man. It is no wonder that so many in 
viduals sliould become infidels, as is the case in many 
parts of the Pope's dominions. One of these blind 
guides told me, ' that though a man should so fully 
love God and his neighbor as to be able to act accord- 
ing to whatever the gospel of Christ requires, yet if 
he did not go to confess, he would be lost for ever.* " 

After this we find him ministering at Marseilles, 
then mourning over the levity and superstition of 
Nice, and now finding refreshment to himself in 
"beautiful" Mentone and the summer air "tempered 
by the cool breezes " which descended from the Mari- 
time Alps. Thence he proceeds to Genoa, where he 
has "precious " meetings of from fifty to sixty persons^ 
composed of Roman Catholics and Waldenses from 
the valleys of Piedmont. 

In Genoa a singular preservation was vouchsafed to 
him. It was in his heart to go to the ancient and 
modern capital of Italy, and he narrates : " Finding 
that it would be impracticable to go by land to Rome, 
on account of the numerous bands of robbers that 
attacked travellers, even when escorted by large com- 
panies of soldiers, I concluded to try to go there by 
sea, by way of Leghorn. As I was going to engage 
my passage for that port, my mind was introduced 
into unutterable distress — gross darkness seemed to be 
before me, whilst a bright stream of light was behind; 
I stood still for a while, and found I could not go for- 
ward. I returned to my lodgings, and in my chamber 
poured forth my soul unto the Lord, entreating Him 
to direct me aright. He knew it was in obedience to 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 105 

His Divine will that I had come to these nations, and 
that to His Divine guidance and almighty protection I 
had wholly committed myself and my all. He very gra- 
ciously condescended to be near to me in my distress, 
and to hear the voice of my supplication. He gave me 
to see, and strongly to feel, that to Rome and Naples I 
should indeed go, but that the time for it had not yet 
come, and the language of the Spirit was to proceed 
with all speed to Geneva and Switzerland. My soul 
was greatly humbled before the Lord, who thus con- 
descended to instruct His poor servant, and to direct 
him in the w^ay which He would have him to go. I 
remembered before I left America, when, dismayed on 
contemplating the extent and magnitude of the Lord's 
work to which I was called, the gracious promise 
came, — ' I will teach thee and instruct thee in the way 
in which thou goest, I will guide thee "with Mine 
eye.' " 

He afterwards learnt that the armies of Napoleon 
were in full flight to France after their defeats by the 
Germans, and were closely pursued by the Austrians ; 
the army of the King of Naples, also in full retreat to 
the south, would have shut him up in Italy, had he 
not made his way to Switzerland, and that he would 
moreover have been in peril from orders sent from 
Paris to Nismes to follow and arrest him. Well might 
he exclaim : " Thus have I been delivered from two- 
fold dangers, — from being carried to Paris as a pris- 
oner for the testimony of Jesus, or shut up in some 
corner of Italy. Bless the Lord, O my soul ! trust 
for ever in the guidance of His Divine Spirit, who 



106 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

alone can and ought to direct thy steps, and all thy 
movements, especially in the service of the ministry'" 
of the gospel to which He has called thee." 

By way of Turin he passed to Geneva. The city of 
Calvin had been brought under the influence of ration- 
alism and Socinianism. Fifteen pastors and three 
professors of theology held a meeting with him. He 
speaks of it as " a great cross, being sensible of his 
want of qualification." There are however evidences 
that this and other interviews made a deep and lasting 
impression. His calm and firm appeals to Scripture 
proof of the glory of the Redeemer were among the 
influences that prepared the way for the evangelical 
revival which shortly afterwards visited Geneva. 

After meetings of a like nature with other Swiss 
pastors he entered Bavaria. There the Spirit had been 
moving on the hearts of men. A remarkable religious 
awakening had taken place ; besides many private 
persons, nearly forty Roman Catholic priests, spite of 
heavy persecutions, had borne faithful witness to 
scriptural teaching; among them were Lindel, Gossner^ 
and Martin Boos.* The visit of Steohen Grellet 



* The conversion of Martin Boos is so striking as to demand 
this foot-note. In 1789 he was a Roman Catholic. In the 
discharge of his office as a priest, he went to visit a woman 
distinguished by her humility and piety, who was dangerously 
ill. '' I do not doubt," said he, endeavoring to prepare her for 
death, " that you die calmly and happily." "And why ? " said 
the woman. "Because," replied he, "your life has been a 
continued chain of good actions." The woman smiled and 
said : " If I were to die relying for my salvation on the works 
which you mention, I am certain that I should be condemned; 
but that which makes me calm at this awful moment is that I 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. lOt 

became to large numbers of inquiring persons in the 
Catholic Church one of great encouragement and con- 
firmation. His " vivacity " and " solidity," of which 
Dr. Steinkopff bore witness, pre-eminently fitted him 
for such a service. He also arranged with Gossner to 
put into circulation an edition of six thousand copies 
of the Scriptures. In Munich he is still following in 



rely on Jesus Christ my Saviour." "Those few words," says 
Boos, " in the mouth of a dying woman, who was looked upon 
as a saint, opened my eyes for the first time. I understood the 
meaning of Christ for tis ; like Abraham, I saw His day. From 
that time I announced to others that Saviour whom I had 
l:arned to know, and there were many who rejoiced with me." 
Thus did this woman, whom he wished to prepare for death, 
prepare him for life eternal. The impressions which he had 
received were never effaced. He put in practice the lessons 
he had been taught, and zealously preached- the doctrines for 
which he had afterwards so severely to suffer. His labors 
began to be blessed in an extraordinary manner. He felt 
deeply his own insufficiency, and sought, in continual prayer 
to God and the assiduous perusal of the Holy Scriptures, the 
assistance which he needed. He generally felt his own sin- 
fulness and insufficiency most deeply when he was about to 
deliver a discourse intended to affect the consciences of others. 
On these occasions he would often forget the sermon which 
he had studiously composed and committed to memory, and 
would acknowledge with tears to his hearers that he had noth- 
ing to say to them ; but he would feel himself led on, by the 
contemplation of their wants and his own insufficiency, to urge 
upon thein that which the Holy Spirit gave him at that moment 
for their edification. Several discourses, uttered thus from the 
abundance of his heart, were the instruments of a religious 
awakening which took place at that time at Gallneukirchen. 

After a long life of much usefulness, when he felt the end 
drawing near, he said to a friend that he was dying in that 
faith for which he had suffered; and to another he wrote, 
" Even now I feel that none shall seethe Lord without having 
washed his robes in the blood of the Lamb." See " Life and 
Persecutions of Martin Boos, edited by J. Gossner;" translated 
from the German. 



108 STEPnEN GRELLET, 

the wake of the Spirit's operations. There he had 
audiences with the Crown Prince and the King. Of 
the last interview he writes : " The King wished to 
know the result of my observations in the visits I had 
made to the prisons. Having answered his inquiries, 
my way was open for introducing the subject of liberty 
of conscience, and the sufferings that had been inflicted 
on several of his subjects on that account. He threw 
the blame on the Pope, his nuncio and the bishops. 
* They are continually teasing me on that account,' 
said he. This very interesting topic led me to make 
some remarks of a religious character, under which 
the King's mind appeared to be impressed ; and at last, 
when I was about to withdraw, he put his arms round 
my neck, and bade me farewell. We had been together 
above an hour. 

" The Prince was delighted at my account of the 
reception the King, his father, had given me. I do 
hope that the powerful convictions that he has received, 
and the impressions that, through the love of Christ, 
have been made upon him, will prove lasting." 

Pursuing the same track, of the Spirit's visitations, 
we find him next in Ratisbon, where, among other 
evidences of this grace, he records : 

'' I found in the Count Westerwood and family 

genuine piety ; also in the Princess . She has 

surrounded herself with those who, like her, love the 
Lord Jesus, Thus, amidst the thick clouds 'of dark- 
ness that hang over the nations, and the tumult of 
war, there are here and there those who know the 
Lord Jesus to be their sanctuary. My spirit was 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE 109 

refreshed in a meeting with a company of these pious 
persons." 

Three weeks were thus spent among those who, in 
the Roman CathoHc church, were confessing the 
principles of the Reformation. His unflinching testi- 
mony against the corruptions of Rome, and his 
powerful advocacy among princes for liberty of con- 
science, were most valuable at this crisis. Thence he 
passed to Frankfort, Neuwied, Cologne, Elberfeld, 
Pyrmont and Bremen. His labors in these places 
were incessant. The full horrors of war were at this 
time falling upon this part of Germany. Wagons 
were met. with the blood of wounded soldiers flowing 
from them ; the roads were strewed with the dead or 
dying ; disease and famine were on every hand. With 
a heavy heart he gathered, wherever possible, small 
companies for religious fellowship. Desolation and 
misery were over the land, and strongly marked 
became the division between those who gave them- 
selves up to a wild license of revelry and drunkenness, 
and those who, in their anguish and consternation, 
sought unto the Lord. To the latter he was a most 
welcomed minister of guidance and consolation. 

A pleasant contrast is presented, in his Journal, by 
the condition of the Swedish army who were passing 
to join the Allied forces. 

" Whilst I was in these parts, several bodies of the 
Swedish army passed through. Their sobriety and 
good behavior are very becoming. Such quietness 
prevailed in the evenings and through the night, that 
a stranger arriving there could not have discovered 



110 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

that he was in the midst of so many soldiers. They 
all retired early in the evening to the several quarters 
assigned them, and previous to their lying down the 
subaltern attending each small company offered up a 
short prayer, in which the others joined. I had 
several opportunities of hearing them. They gave 
thanks to God for the preservation they had witnessed 
during the day, and interceded for the continuation of 
the same day by day, — then entreated the Lord for 
His blessing of preservation to their families and near 
relatives in their absence. In the morning, when 
ready for their departure, they were all marched in a 
body before the door of the house where their com- 
manding officer had lodged, and he, with a loud voice, 
read to them a small portion of the Scriptures, and 
then offered up a short prayer. I have not heard of 
the like practice in any of the armies of the several 
nations now confederate together." 

The preservation he experienced at this time, espe- 
cially from the hordes of the Cossacks, and the preda- 
tory bandits who were scouring the land, awakened 
his fervent gratitude. 

" Feeling my mind released from the great weight 
of exercise under which I have been for the people 
on the continent, my soul has been prostrated very 
reverently before the Lord, who has been my saving 
help and strength day by day, night after night; the 
everlasting arms have been underneath to uphold and 
preserve me. During this winter I have been more 
than forty nights on the road, many times amidst 
robbers and murderers. I have repeatedly been where 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE, 111 

contagious diseases, through war, prevailed to a high 
degree, so that the mortaHty was great ; often also I 
have xnade but one scanty meal a day; but -amidst all 
these things the Lord has borne me up, and delivered 
me, — yea, rendered hard things easy. My health is 
now as good, or better, than^when I landed in France 
more than nine months ago. And, above all, the 
Lord, my great and blessed Master, who called me to 
this service in these nations, has opened a way for me 
to find and visit a portion of His seed, and to proclaim 
the glad tidings of His salvation to thousands of the 
people, both rich and poor. O Lord ! bless Thou 
those pious ones whom Thou hast enabled me to visit! 
Oh, bless the work of Thy hands everywhere ! " 

Numerous letters followed him from Gossner, Ver- 
net, Gessner, Hess, and other devoted persons, among 
whom were men of rank occupying high official 
positions. They testified to the value of his mission 
at that troublous time. 

Again in England, Stephen Grellet found refresh- 
ment in the religious circles of the metropolis. The 
royal heads of the Allied army were now in London. 
A committee of Friends was formed to draw up an 
address on behalf of the sufferers from the war; and 
which urged, after the " Peace of Paris," that the 
gospel of Christ demanded a spirit of peace in the 
future government of Europe. The King of Prussia 
was the first to whom Stephen Grellet, accompanied 
by William Allen, had access. 

" The attention of the King having been directed 
to the great misery, vice, and destruction of human life 



112 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

attending war, contrary as it is to Christianit)', he inti- 
mated his strong desire that the love and the peaceable 
spirit which the gospel of Christ inspires might per- 
vade the whole world, and lamented the sufferings that 
have attended the last few years. We presented him 
also with a number of our books, for which he thanked 
us, and placed them; together with the address, under 
the care of his ambassador to this nation, who accom- 
panied him." 

The interview with the Emperor Alexander of 
Russia calls for a longer notice. 

" We could not find an opportunity to be with the 
Emperor Alexander till the 2 1st of this month, though 
we were informed that he had heard of our intention, 
and desired to receive us as early as he could. Dear 
William Allen and another Friend went with me to 
the Pulteney Hotel, at the time appointed by the 
Emperor. He came to meet us at the door of his 
apartment, took us by the hand in a kind manner, and 
said that for a length of time he had wished for an 
opportunity to be with us. Through th^ Empress, 
who was at Baden when I was at Carlsruhe last winter, 
he said that he had heard of me and of my visit there. 
Then he inquired into several of our religious testi- 
monies, principles and practices, to which dear William 
Allen answered in English, which language the 
Emperor speaks well. Whilst William was engaged 
in stating the nature of our Christian principles, the 
Emperor said several times, * These are my own 
sentiments also.' He was very particular in his 
inquiries respecting our views and practices in connec- 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 113 

tion with Divine worship, the ministry, the influence 
of the Divine Spirit, etc. He made several very- 
pertinent remarks on these various subjects, particu- 
larly on prayer; respecting worship, he said that God, 
who knoweth our hearts, cannot be pleased with nor 
be acceptably worshipped by the observance of 
outward forms and ceremonies, or the repetition of 
words which the wicked and the hypocrite could use, 
though continuing in their sinful practices ; but that a 
worship in spirit and in truth is the most acceptable 
to God, who is a Spirit, and that before Him our own 
spirit must be reverently prostrated. Respecting 
prayer he said, ' I pray every day, not in a form of 
words, but as the Lord, by His Spirit, convincing me 
of my wants, enables me to do.' We entered fully 
on the subject of our testimony against war, to which 
he fully assented. He made several other inquiries 
of a religious character, which having been answered, 
silence ensued, after which, feeling my heart warmed 
by the love of Christ towards him, and under a sense 
also of the peculiar temptations and trials to whicL 
his exalted station in the world subjected him, I 
addressed a few words to him ; his heart appeared 
sensibly and tenderly affected ; with tears, he took 
hold of my hand, which he held silently for a while, 
and then said, * These your words are a sweet cordial 
to my soul ; they will long remain engraven on my 
heart.' We furnished him with a number of Friends' 
books, which he received with pleasure; and on our 
taking leave of him, having been together upwards of 
an hour, he took each of us by the hand and said : 



114 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

* I part from you as from friends and brethren : feelings 
which I hope will ever remain with me.' 

"After we had left, the Grand Duchess, his sister, 
sent a request to us to furnish her with books like 
those we had presented to the Emperor, which was 
cheerfully complied with. Here I may say that the 
Emperor and h'is sister, accompanied by Count Lieven, 
his ambassador, came to one of our meetings at West- 
minster meeting-house; William Allen, who knew of 
their intention through the ambassador, accompanied 
them. It proved a good and solemn meeting. The 
Emperor and Grand Duchess, by their solemn coun- 
tenances and religious tenderness, gave evidence that 
they felt it to be so to them. 

" I felt my mind much relieved after this service 
with these crowned heads, particularly as I had a full 
opportunity to lay before them the enormities of war, 
and to direct their attention to the peaceable spirit of 
Christ ; Alexander especially appeared to feel deeply 
on the subject, and to be sincere in his desire for the 
promotion of harmony, love, and peace throughout 
the world ; he told us that his concern had been great, 
that the several crowned heads might conclude to 
settle their differences by arbitration and not by the 
sword." 

The reference to William Allen in the foregoing ex- 
tracts calls for a notice of this distinguished Quaker. 
He was a little older than Stephen Grellet, having 
been born in London, August, 1770. He obtained 
early in life considerable distinction by his scientific 
acquirements, and when thirty-two years of age was 



SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE. 115 

elected a member of the Linnaean Society, and became 
a lecturer on chemistry at Guy's Hospital and the 
Royal Institution. In 1 807 he was elected Fellow of 
the Royal Society. While pursuing these scientific 
studies he dedicated much wealth and labor on behalf 
of the oppressed Africans, popular education, reform 
of the criminal code, the Bible Society, and inter- 
national peace. In the establishment of the British 
and Foreign School Society he took a prominent 
part ; and the relief of distress in the cities of England 
at that period, and of the agricultural population, en- 
gaged much of his attention. These things are noted, 
to correct an impression that he, associated afterwards 
with Stephen Grellet, paid too much court to royal 
personages. The Impression Is most unjust. Kings 
and emperors had then, as now, the well-being and 
liberties of the nations In their hands, and no service 
could have been more demanded of ministers of re 
ligion than that of faithful and courteous testimony, 
before crowned heads, against the war spirit, and in 
favor of religious liberty, and of attention to the con- 
dition of prisoners. 

After these engagements In London, Stephen 
Grellet attended the Quarterly Meetings of Friends 
held at York, Durham, Westmoreland and Lanca- 
shire. Kent and Sussex were afterwards visited by 
him. In October, 1 8 14, he turned his face homeward^ 
and, having- arrived in New York, records his grati- 
tude to God for the providential mercies thrown 
around his wife during his absence, and the marked 
interpositions of his Divine Master on his behalf, 



116 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

" My soul was reverently prostrated before the 
Lord for the preservation extended to us. His own 
arm brought us deliverance. * Thou wilt keep him in 
perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because 
he trusteth in Thee.' Thus did my gracious Lord 
uphold me, and deliver me ; for ever adored and 
praised be His holy name. How often has He, in 
the course of these last three years and a half, greatly 
magnified His name. He has been my refuge and 
strength, and has never failed me. I have travelled 
during this engagement about twenty-six thousand 
miles by land, besides several thousands by water, 
and have had during that period nearly as many 
meetings as days. I went out very poor in spirit, so 
I return ; and yet I can truly say that I have not 
lacked anything. It is the Lord's doing, and to Him 
the whole praise and glory are ascribed ! On my 
arrival in New York I found that my beloved wife 
was at Burlington. We soon met there, and rejoiced 
together in the Lord for His great goodness to us 
both, exciting a desire that, through His Divine grace 
helping us, we may stand offered up to Him and His 
service to the end of our lives." 

We close this chapter with Steinkopff's words, before 
referred to : " Previously to Stephen Grellet's going 
this journey, I had an interview with him, when he 
told me his intended route. I said, * It is one of the 
most difficult you could have formed.' I knew that, 
if he gained a passport at all to visit some parts of 
France, it would be from one of the most strict police 
officers on the continent, and much I feared for the 



Bt:COND VISIT TO EUROPE. 117 

safety of this excellent man; but when he began to 
tell me what his religious views were, and I saw how 
his heart was bound to his duty, I believed that the 
Lord sent him, and that it was His work ; I could not 
doubt of its accomplishment. So it has proved. He 
is now safely returned, after having passed through 
armies of Cossacks, from whom he met with little or 
no insult. The blessing of the Lord was with him, 
and I doubt not made him instrumental of much good. 
This gentleman has all the vivacity of a Frenchman 
with the solidity of the English." 

" No weapon that is formed against thee shall pros- 
per; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in 
judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage 
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness ia 
ot Me, saith the Lord " (Isa. liv. 17J. 



CHAPTER X. 

MISSTOJ^ TO THE NORTHERN EUROPEAN NATIONS, 

THE prayer of Stephen Grellet at the close of the 
last chapter was " that through Divine grace 
helping us" {i. e., Mrs. Grellet and himself), "we may- 
stand offered up to the Lord and His service to the 
end of our lives." The words will remind of those 
remarkable ones in " The Imitation of Christ." It is 
thus the Lord speaks to His followers : *' I have very 
often said unto thee, Forsake thyself, resign thyself, 
and thou shalt enjoy much inward peace. Give all 
for all ; seek nothing, ask back nothing; abide purely 
and with a firm confidence in Me, and thou shalt pos- 
sess Me, thou shalt be free in heart, and darkness shall 
not tread thee down. Let this be thy whole endeavor; 
let this be thy prayer, thy desire ; that being stripped 
of all selfishness thou mayest with entire simplicity 
follow Jesus only, and, dying to thyself, mayest live 
eternally in Me." 

The freedom and efficiency of Stephen Grellet must 
be attributed to this unreserved purpose to do the will 
of Christ. Without difficulty he was enabled wisely 
to instruct in every private circle of the poor and of 
persons of distinction, and to speak with wonderful 
persuasiveness in every meeting he addressed. In his 

(118) 



MISSIOI^ TO NOR THERN E UR OPE A N NA TIONS. 1 1 J 

case we seem to learn that entire disinterestedness, 
self control, and devotion to truth are more effective 
than intellect, high culture, and depths of scholarly- 
penetration, which are less sanctified.* 

Considerations that have a national bearing demand 
notice also. At the epoch under consideration, En- 
gland, during her long years of peace, the eagle spirit 
of the great conqueror of France having been subdued, 
was to initiate that golden age of faith. Christian en- 
thusiasm, enterprise, and successful commerce towards 
which she continued to advance so grandly until the 
middle of the century. The continental nations, dur- 
ing the same period, were to develop that love of free- 
dom, and to realize that power of a true spiritual life, 



* The first disciples of Christ have been termed " very infe- 
rior men." A distinguished preacher and writer has said: 
" None can know what the reasons were for the selection by 
Christ of the inner circle of His disciples. None of them ex- 
hibited any traits of genius." But may not this be to judge 
by a human standard ? Great gifts do not of themselves make 
the effective preachers. Spite of their errors, contentions, and 
inability at first to comprehend their Master, the eleven pos- 
sessed eminent moral qualifications for the witness to which 
they were called. They were less swayed by policy and con- 
ventional prejudices than other more cultivated Jews. Nico- 
demus and Joseph of Arimathea did not openly avow their 
discipleship till compelled by the final crisis. It is an easy 
matter to picture the weakness of the eleven, for two of them 
have told us of them. It may, however, be questioned whether 
men of higher pretensions would, as chroniclers of Jesus, have 
been as likely to have kept back their own personality, and to 
have mirrored for us so carefully the very word and look of 
the Lord. In the depth of their afi"ections, their honesty to 
conviction, their sincerity, their independence of popular preju- 
dices, and their capacity of growth, there appear adequate 
reasons for their selection by Christ. 



1^ STEPUEN GRELLET 

which have wrought the vastest changes in European 
kingdoms, the most remarkable growth of Hberty for 
reh"gious opinion, and are yet struggHng, bHndly and 
eagerly, but with grand prophecies for the future. As 
for the United States, during the same decades they 
have turned over a page of progress in all that consti- 
tutes an inventive, commercial, agricultural, colonizing 
and Christian life, more magnificent than has ever 
before been witnessed in any historical period. And 
this progress will not be followed by decay like that 
of the Roman Empire, for apparently America is more 
watchful over the essential salt of its Christian faith 
and character than ourselves. Surely we may admire 
the mercy and wisdom of God that, at such a formative 
time to the nations, and at such a period of a new start 
for humanity, He gave to Europe and America the 
Christian consecration and noble self denial of men 
like Stephen Grellet and William Allen; and as we 
trace their work we are indicating the unrecorded 
service of many like-minded men. 

Before entering on their joint labors for a season, 
reference must be made to a visit paid by Mr. Grellet 
to one of the islands of the Antilles. He was at this 
time in New York, conducting his business in part- 
nersh'*p with his brother-in-law, who was in true sym- 
pathy with his convictions and aims. The business 
was prosperous. He afterwards recorded : " I was 
thereby enabled to defray the heavy expenses of my 
last journey, to provide for my beloved family, and to 
lay up enough to pay my expenses during the exten- 
sive service before me. My wife is my faithful 



MISSION TO NORTHER N EUR OPE AN NA TIONS. 121 

helper ; she very sweetly encourages me to follow the 
Lord in the paths of obedience and in all faithful- 
ness." 

While thus occupied, he paid a visit to Hayti. 
Columbus landed on this island in December, 1492. 
He called it Hispaniola, or '' little Spain." It is often 
called San Domingo ; its size and fertility give it rank 
as the second of the Greater Antilles. At this time it 
had established its own free constitution. Slavery 
had been for ever abolished. The Roman Catholic 
religion was declared to be that of the state, but the 
exercise of every other was tolerated. 

Stephen Grellet's visit was mainly to promote the 
interests of the colored population. He held large 
meetings, distributed Bibles, Testaments, and tracts. 
He was offered a spacious Romish church as being 
the most convenient place to accommodate the people. 
On his expressing objections to this arrangement, 
the President — Alexander Petion — replied : " The 
meetings are for Divine worship, and for this purpose 
the church has been built; moreover, the chief priest 
has no objection." This removed his difficulty. The 
meeting was largely attended ; his language however 
is : " great was the travail of my spirit on behalf of 
this large congregation. To the testimony that the 
Lord is very near to those who are lost in their sins, 
in order to save. He condescended to reveal His power, 
and to cause the stream of His glorious gospel to 
flow." He also met about six thousand of the mili- 
tary, gathered before the palace of the President, who 
himself sat by his side while he preached " the un- 



122 STEPUEN GRELLET. 

searchable riches of Christ," urging the soldiers to 
come and range themselves under the standard of the 
Prince of Peace. An hour after the service the general in 
chief with most of his staff visited him at his lodgings, to 
express their grateful acknowledgment. On another 
occasion the free colored population came from the 
mountains and villages round about to attend a large 
meeting in the market place. " The whole preceding 
night," are his words, " my exercise was such that my 
soul cried deeply unto the Lord for His saving help 
and strength. It was as if the weight of the moun- 
tains was upon me, and I felt so poor and empty that 
I thought I could never more advocate the cause of 
truth. The meeting the next morning was quiet and 
solemn, and the Lord very graciously was strength in 
weakness." 

In weakness He promises to make His strength 
perfect. The influence of a wise and benevolent man 
among a lately enslaved people was beyond all estima- 
tion, and he was able to add : " I frequently marvel 
in beholding how, among these descendants of Africa, 
who have had so few advantages compared to many 
of the Europeans, the gospel stream does flow, and the 
word preached appears to have an entrance ; they re- 
ceive it in the simplicity of their hearts, and in the 
love of it. I may also bear testimony to their general 
good conduct and honesty. One may travel among 
them with the greatest security. I have heard that 
very frequently large sums of money are sent over 
these mountains from one seaport to another, and no 
attempt at robbery has been known. Very lately a 



missioj:^ to northern European nations. 123 

man had six horses loaded with sacks of dollars, and 
one of the sacks had become so worn that, when the 
driver discovered it, it was nearly empty. On his 
going back he found the dollars scattered on the road 
for some miles, and people collecting them. They 
immediately gave him what they had picked up, and 
assisted in finding more. When the driver sat down 
to count, he found that only about ten were missing ; 
and then these men went farther on in search, and at 
length brought him back every single dollar ! We 
might in vain look for so much honesty among many 
of our white people." 

The interest which he felt in the people of Hayti 
did not cease after his return. He corresponded with 
Petion and some of the chief men of the island, and, 
both by enlisting in their favor the efforts of English 
philanthropists, and by more direct influence, he was 
the means of rendering valuable aid in advancing the 
cause of general education, and of the social as well 
as moral and religious improvement among the 
Africans, just emerging from the degrading thraldom 
of slavery, and of others suffering from long continued 
struggles for political liberty. 

On the 17th of June, 181 8, with a commendation of 
Friends he sailed for England. Arrived in London 
he at once told his *' dear friend William Allen that it 
was he who was to be associated with him in his work 
among the nations." Five days after, in company 
with his mother and daughter, Allen met with Stephen 
Grellet for the purpose of waiting before the Lord. 
After the manner of the Friends it was for a time a 



124 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

season of silence, which was at length broken by 
William Allen, prostrate on his knees, offering him- 
self and his all to the Lord, to go wherever the 
blessed Master might be pleased to send him, and to 
drink whatever cup He might prepare. Mr. Grellet 
remarks : " Oh, it was a solemn season indeed ; my 
soul very reverently adored the excellency of the 
Lord's power and mercy in thus providing for me the 
companion after my own heart, towards whom my 
mind had been inclined for a length of time, though 
none knew it except my beloved wife. Bless the 
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His 
holy name ! " 

In his memorials William Allen refers to the " very 
weighty manner " in which among Friends Mr. Grellet 
disclosed his " concern " for the European nations. 
From the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the Prince 
Leopold, the Swedish Ambassadors, Thomas Clarkson, 
Mrs. E.J. Fry, Priscilla Gurney, R. D. Alexander, and 
others, they received assurances of assistance in their 
mission, or of prayers. 

Before offering a few passages from the Journal 
which records their work through northern Europe, 
it is important to interpose an observation. History 
has so exclusively dealt with political, dynastic, and 
military events, as to justify the impression that the 
wars, violence, and oppressions of the early part of the 
present century had all but obliterated traces of piety. 
No mistake could be greater. The mission of the 
Comforter Avas not a blessing confined to the first 
planting of the Christian church. Since the ascension 



MISSION TO NORTHERN EUROPEAN NA TIONS. 125 

of the Lord Jesus, when heaven and earth were united 
in Him, there has been no period when the Divine 
Spirit has not moved upon human hearts. The world 
has yet to be enriched by some gifted mind who shall 
trace the history of the Spirit's grace through all these 
Christian ages, and the unexpected and rare piety 
which has shone In every social circle, In every Chris- 
tian communion, and in all lands. Man is " capable 
of this interior presence of the Divine nature ; " and 
to some readers of this memoir the evidence of the 
gracious operations of the Spirit of Christ, in places 
where they might not have been looked for, will fur- 
nish a valuable encouragement to Christian disciples 
outside the Society of Friends, for whom especially 
Mr. Grellet's Journal was kept. 

"Norway: Stavanger, Eighth Month 25th, 1818. 
The little company here who profess with Friends 
have hitherto held their religious meetings In one of 
their houses, which sometimes subjected them to In- 
terruptions, and piously inclined persons feel diffident 
in coming to sit with them in a private house. This 
has induced us to endeavor to procure a suitable place 
for them to meet in. We have obtained a commo- 
dious room, which we have hired for one year, and 
had it properly seated and prepared. 

" Several opportunities have presented for our being 
with many of the inhabitants of this place. Some- 
times a large number were collected together. We 
assisted them in organizing a meeting for maintaining 
good order and Christian care over one another, which 
is to be held every two months, 



12G STEPIIEy GRELLET. 

" Christiansand. It has taken us two days to come 
here in our little vessel, which we have now dischar"-ed. 
as we expect to proceed by land. 

" Accompanied by Peter Isaacson, a pious man to 
whom we were introduced, we have visited the Gov- 
ernor, who treated us with great civility, and is dis- 
posed to give us every facility he can in the further 
prosecution of our religious or benevolent objects. 

" Christiania. We arrived here early this afternoon, 
and had in the evening a small meeting with those 
who profess with us. Some of them I had seen on 
board the prison ship in England. 

" We have found a wide door set open before us by 
our blessed Master. We have had various meetings, 
and have also visited families. They cordially unite 
in adopting the rules of discipline prepared at Stavan- 
ger ; and conclude to establish a Two-i\Ionths' IMeet- 
ing. We have had some pretty large and satisfactory 
meetings with the inhabitants. There are serious and 
pious individuals among them, who are ready to re- 
ceive our testimony. We find great openness among 
the men in power, — the Governor, the chief minister 
of state, their several officers, and many of the princi- 
pal merchants. Some religious meetings among that 
class of men have been held at the residence of the 
Governor, and have been .seasons of Divine favor. 
There is here a fortress, in which many prisoners are 
confined for life, others for a term of years. The gov- 
ernor of the castle had them collected in their respec- 
tive yards, to give us an opportunity of meeting with 
theni. 



MISSION TO yOR THERN E UR OPE A N NA TIONS. 127 

" Stockholm. We have been closely occupied since 
coming to this city, where Ave felt ourselves particu- 
larly concerned for the poor and the suffering. It has 
led us to visit their various institutions. We have 
had the company of Phillipson, a pious and benevo- 
lent man, whose time and large estate are employed 
in acts of benevolence. He is the founder and sup- 
porter of several of these establishments, and takes a 
very active part in many others. Those for the edu- 
cation of poor children are very extensive : they are 
on the most liberal plan, and in good order. The 
same may be said of their retreats for the aged ; they 
are treated more like persons in middle circumstances 
in life than is generally the case in poorhouses. They 
have no beggars here ; indeed they are not allowed ; 
if a man cannot obtain work, some is provided for 
him ; if he knows not how to work, he is taught ; if 
he cannot sell his produce, a reasonable price is given 
him for it, to enable him to live till he can do better 
for himself The aged, infirm or sick, are maintained 
in the most liberal manner. We have visited all these 
establishments, and their prisons also, having religious 
meetings in many of them : Enoch Jacobson being 
our interpreter. We have had many religious oppor- 
tunities also among the inhabitants ; some of these were 
held at our lodgings, where we have a spacious room 
for the purpose. 

" Soon after our arrival, we waited on the Count 
D'Engerstrom, for whom we had letters ; he is the 
prime minister. He told us that the King had been 
informed of our arrival in his dominions^ and had 



128 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

expressed a desire to see us when we came to Stock- 
holm. The Count appeared to take much interest in 
the object of our rch'gious engagements. 

" 22d, — month. Being informed by Count D'En- 
gerstrom, that the King (Bernadotte) would receive us 
this evening at his palace at Rosendal, we went there 
at the time appointed. We had requested that it 
might be a private audience, but the Count at once 
introduced us into a very spacious and richly furnished 
room, full of the King's great men, ministers, generals, 
etc., — all in full court dresses — for we were actually 
brought into the court. I felt low on finding myself in 
such company. What a contrast we were to them ! 
we in our plain simple garb, our hats on, — they in 
their rich attire, and many insignia of high rank. 
They treated us, however, with respect, and even with 
affability; such especially, at whose houses we had 
been, and who had attended our meetings. Shortly 
after, we were introduced to a private apartment where 
the King was alone. He received us with kindness, 
entered with interest into the objects that had brought 
us into his dominions, and wished every liberty and 
facility to be given us to visit any place we might 
desire ; and requested us to impart to him any obser- 
vations we make, that he might administer help and 
relief where needed, adding, * but you know that the 
king's name, which implies power, is not always 
attended with it ; on the contrary, I feel very often my 
impotency.' Having inquired what further stay we 
proposed to make in Stockholm, and finding that it 



MISSION TO NOR TIIERN E UR OPE A N NA TIONS. 1 29 

was to be prolonged for a few days, he said he desired 
to see us again. 

*' The Count D'Engerstrom having sent us informa- 
tion that the King wished to see us at five P. M., in 
the town palace, we went accordingly. The Count 
was waiting for us, and brought us at once into the 
King's private chamber. He received us in a kind 
and friendly manner, and made us take seats by him, 
none being present with us but the Count. We had 
a very full opportunity with him, in the course of 
which we pressed the necessity of allowing liberty of 
conscience in his dominions. The King feelingly 
alluded to the great responsibility he felt as monarch 
over this realm ; that if he was successful in doing any 
good, he was but a weak instrument in it ; indeed his 
power was very limited. He spoke with much feeling 
of the case of the poor Jews, who, by the law of the 
nation, are not allowed to reside in this country. He 
had several times tried to have this iniquitous law 
repealed, but his efforts had been in vain. He men- 
tioned an occurrence that took place lately. A num- 
ber of Jews were wrecked on the Swedish coast, when 
it was with the utmost difficulty that he, the King, 
had succeeded in allowing them to be landed; but he 
could not protect them from being sent out of the 
kingdom as speedily as could be, though the poor 
sufferers had lost their all ; supplies were given from 
the King's private purse. We were almost two hours 
together; and on our parting the King held us by the 
hand, and, embracing us^ seemed as if he could hardly 



130 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

let US go, following us with his eyes and uplifted hand 
till we were out of sight. 

" Finland : Abo, 29th of Tenth Month. We arrived 
here early this morning. It was a beautiful passage. 
The numerous rocks and islands through which we 
passed are called ' The Thousand Islands.' My mind 
was, however, under too great a weight of feeling to 
enjoy the surrounding beauties. On the one hand I 
was prostrated before the Lord in adoration and 
praise, for the help He has granted us through Nor- 
way and Sweden, the wide door He set open before 
us to proclaim His great and holy name among the 
people at large, and to many of their clergy ; and the 
manner in which way has been made for us to spread 
before the King of Sweden, and many of his nobles, 
our concern for the promotion of the cause of truth 
among them. But, on the other hand, my spirit was 
brought very low under the weight and magnitude of 
the mission upon me for this vast empire of Russia, 
not knowing what may befall us here. O Lord, all 
things are possible to Thee ! Not by might nor by 
wisdom, but by Thy Spirit only, are Thy servants to 
be directed ; their help is from Thee alone ! 

" In the afternoon we went to the prison in the 
castle, accompanied by the doctor and the secretary 
of the Governor-General. The castle is about two 
miles out of Abo. The chains and irons fastened 
upon the poor prisoners exceed what I have seen any- 
where else, though I have visited many prisons. The. 
Governor has it not in his power to remove these 
fetters, but by his humane treatment the prisoners 



MISSION TO NORTHERN EUR OPE AN NA TIONS. 131 

are kept very clean, and the cells dry and well warmed 
in winter. We have taken a sketch of the fetters of 
these miserable sufferers, which perhaps may be of 
use at a future day in endeavoring to procure some 
relief for them. One man has been confined in heavy 
irons for eighteen years. 

" 31st. I felt so distressed last night under a sense 
of the sufferings and misery which I had beheld, that 
I could not sleep ; my soul was poured out before the 
Lord that He would open the way for the mitigation 
of so much distress. 

" 1st of Eleventh Month. Yesterday we had a full 
opportunity with the Governor. We laid before him 
the heavy sufferings of the poor prisoners in the 
castle, and in the other prisons. He feels for them, 
and says that he has taken steps towards a change in 
their treatment, but has not yet succeeded ; he appre- 
hends it has never yet come to the knowledge of the 
Emperor. We pressed it upon him to exert his influ- 
ence for the relief of such suffering. We have had a 
religious opportunity in his palace, with his family and 
about fifty other persons. His wife and daughters are 
serious characters,; we proclaimed among them the 
redeeming love and mercy of God, through Jesus 
Christ, and who has also given to every man, for this 
very purpose, the manifestation of His Spirit. 

" This evening we had another opportunity with 
about forty or fifty persons ; two of them were our 
fellow passengers from Stockholm, a young nobleman 
from Russia and a lady. The Archbishop sent us a 
request for an interview. We accordingly went to his 



132 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

house. Our minds were strongly engaged before the 
Lord that, through the help of His Spirit, He would 
preserve us from everything that could militate against 
His cause of righteousness and truth. The Archbishop 
received us at first in his private apartment, but soon 
brought us into a spacious room, in which were his 
wife and several members of his family, who were 
shortly after joined by many of the clergy. It appears 
that these had come to Abo from different parts of 
Finland, on some special occasion, and the Archbishop 
was willing to give them an opportunity to be with us. 
On seeing such a company collect, we felt our minds 
brought under deep exercise. My prayer was that 
the Lord would turn this time of trial to His glory, 
and the exaltation of His great name. After a while 
I felt that His power was over all, and my confidence 
in Him was renewed. One of the first subjects intro- 
duced by the Bishop was liberty of conscience. We 
were enabled with clearness to state that th^ control 
of the conscience is a prerogative which the Lord has 
reserved in His own hands ; to Him alone it belongs, 
by His Spirit and His truth, to rule in the hearts of 
men ; men may make hypocrites, constrain them to 
an outward profession, but they cannot convert the 
heart. Then followed — what constitutes a member 
of the church of Christ, the Christian worship and 
ministry — out of which branched an allusion to the 
many ceremonies and practices that have found a 
place among different religious denominations, and for 
which there is no authority in the Holy Scriptures. 
The Archbishop gave unequivocal assent to many of 



MISSION TO KORTEER N EUROPEAN NATIONS. 183 

our sentiments, and several of those present united in 
the same ; some requested further explanation. They 
said that all the best forms and outward observances 
are but a shadow of the substance, to which every 
true Christian is to gather ; ' none of these things,' 
said the Archbishop, ' will be found in heaven ; but 
love, which should be universal on the earth, and love 
to God, which is to endure for ever, will prevail there.' 
When we came to the dinner table, instead of sitting 
down at once, the company stood in silence behind the' 
chairs, and then, without uttering a word, we all took 
our seats. I was seated between the Archbishop and 
his wife, and took the opportunity to ask him respect- 
ing their having thus stood in silence before sitting 
down. He said that it is his regular practice in his 
family ; he considers it much preferable to the formal 
habit of uttering set prayers, which often the heart 
does not feel ; but that in silence there is an oppor- 
tunity for the heart to feel after and receive a qualifi- 
cation for secret prayer to God. During dinner he 
made several inquiries tending to edification. I felt 
my mind strongly drawn, in the love of Christ, to- 
wards the company with whom we had been thus 
unexpectedly brought to mingle, and I was waiting 
for a suitable opportunity to express what I felt to- 
wards them, when, after dinner, they all rose and 
placed themselves again, as before dinner, behind 
their chairs, and so continued for a while in silence. 
I then believed it was the proper time to communicate 
what I felt to be the Lord's message to them. Much 
seriousness and solemnity prevailed ; and, before we 



184 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

separated, the Archbishop expressed his gratitude that 
he and his brethren had had such an opportunity to 
be with us, and he desired that the Lord might 
prosper and bless the work to which He has called 
us, and bring us to the knowledge of thousands of His 
faithful servants in the nations whereto He is sending 
us, and finally, by His redeeming grace, enable us to 
meet all together in the kingdom of His dear Son, 
our Lord Jesus Christ. The whole of this was ex- 
pressed in French, which the company understood." 

It was the habit of the two travellers to invite to 
their lodgings in every place persons who desired to 
join them in religious exercises. When they called 
on merchants with letters of introduction they entered 
on religious conversation and left books. In the streets 
where the poor live, they would address little assem- 
blies of from forty to fifty persons. As they rested 
for the night in crossing hills, they would interest their 
fellow-travellers by reading hymns. They readily ob- 
tained access to orphanages, and sat with fatherly love 
and wisdom among the boys and girls. At Stockholm 
Lord Strangford, the Ambassador, went forth to meet 
them. In other cities they were received by officers 
of the army, and by judges, to whom they bore an 
appropriate testimony. In such labors they passed 
on to Russia. 



CHAPTER XI. 

SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 

BEFORE giving extracts from Mr. Grellet's Jour- 
nal at a deeply interesting period of his mission, 
it may give us a better insight into his character if a 
reference be made to what Mr. Allen says respecting 
him in his Autobiography. *' Nothing can exceed," 
he says, " dear Stephen's kindness and care of me." 
" In his own kind, tender, and suitable way, Stephen 
spoke to persons high and low." He refers also to 
Mr. Grellet's ** sweet and solemn supplications," at all 
seasons, and in all emergencies. Mr. Allen was speci- 
ally engaged in the circulation of the Scriptures and 
the advance of popular education, and into these two 
objects Mr. Grellet entered warmly, while nothing 
was allowed to divert him from his work of benevo- 
lence and ministering the gospel of God. 

"Petersburg: 14th of Eleventh Month, 18 18. We 
delivered letters that we had for several persons. It 
brought us to an acquaintance with some who mani- 
fest kindness towards us, and through whose medium 
we have obtained convenient private lodgings, at the 
house of an English woman, widow of a Russian officer. 
We find in Samuel Stansfield, a young Friend from 
Sheffield, settled here in mercantile pursuits, an agree- 

(135) 



136 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

abl'e and useful companion. Wc have reason to believe 
that his conduct is consistent with his religious pro- 
fession. Daniel Wheeler and family reside at Ochta, 
a few miles up on the other side of the Neva. They 
came to Russia some months since. The Emperor 
Alexander had employed some persons to drain exten- 
sive morasses near this city; but they did not under- 
stand their business, and sought only to make money, 
so that under various pretences they expended con- 
siderable sums ; which induced the Emperor, after his 
return from England, to desire, if possible, to have a 
member of our Society to undertake the management 
of such works, believing that he could rely on the 
faithfulness and uprightness of such persons ; and he 
wished also to have near him a man of religious prin- 
ciples, whose example might have a good influence on 
others. In consequence he wrote to the Prince 
Lieven, his ambassador in London, who consulted 
with William Allen. During that period our dear 
friend Daniel Wheeler, who resided at Sheffield, had 
felt strong drawings of gospel love towards Russia; 
though he did not feel called upon to go to travel as 
a gospel minister, he yet thought that it was a sense 
of religious duty that prompted him to go to that 
nation. He was brought under very deep exercise 
and conflict of mind; when, hearing of the desire of 
the Emperor that a member of our Society would 
undertake the draining of those morasses, Daniel felt 
Immediately that It was for this very object that his 
mind had been preparing, and In due time he removed 
here with his family. He holds religious meetings 



SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 137 

regularly twice a week, In his own house. His public 
work Is one of great progress. 

" 15th, First Day. We were prevented by the 
severity of the weather, and other obstacles, from 
attempting to cross the Neva, so as to attend the 
little meeting at Ochta, with Daniel Wheeler and 
family ; but dear Allen and myself sat down together, 
as usual, to wait upon the Lord. This has been our 
daily practice since we left England, and mostly twice 
a day ; we haye not been prevented by travelling, often 
finding our carriage like a little sanctuary, where the 
Lord's presence has been near, and our spirits con- 
trlted and refreshed by Him. This day our dear 
Redeemer has again condescended very graciously to 
be near us, and to hear the secret but fervent language 
of our supplications ; for we have been brought very 
low since our arrival here. He has mercifully con- 
firmed us in the faith that we have come Into this 
empire by His Divine appointment, and that He will 
be our all-sufficient guide and hslper for the work He 
may call us to, and also our almighty protector under 
whatever trials may overtake us ; if we, on our part, 
follow the putting forth of His spirit with Singleness 
of heart and faithfulness. 

" 1 7th. We visited, yesterday, several persons for 
whom we had letters ; a few of these are of sober and 
serious minds. The Count Lieven, elder brother of 
of the ambassador In London, came to see us; his 
family are Protestants ; they are from Livonia. He 
Is at present under deep affliction ; his wife, who was 
a pious woman, died a week since ; and his eldest son, 



138 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

with the other members of his family, have gone tO 
accompany her remains to Livonia, to be buried on 
his estates there. Feeling much for the Count in his 
bereaved state, we went to see him to-day. His only 
daughter was with him ; they are in a tender state of 
mind, prepared to receive the consolations of the 
gospel of Christ. There were some other young per- 
sons present, and we had a very precious season 
before the Lord; their hearts were tendered. The 
Count appears to have been for years a man of piety ; 
he knows, therefore, where to flee for help and conso- 
lation in time of affliction. Among those who extend 
great kindness to us, and are helpful in many respects, 
are John Venning and Walter his brother. They are 
benevolent men, and spend much of their time in 
doing good. 

'' 19th. We visited the Prince Alexander Galitzin, 
prime minister of the Emperor. . The Prince received 
us with an open heart ; he was prepared thus to wel- 
come us, as the Emperor had given him an account 
of the visit we paid him when in London. *The 
Emperor,' said he, ' is not here at present, and it will 
be some weeks before his return ; but here is a letter 
I have just received from him, in which he says you 
were soon expected to arrive in Petersburg, and he 
charges me to treat you as his ff^icnds, and to detain 
you here till his return.' The Prince inquired into 
the nature of our religious prospects, and how he 
could in anywise assist us. We gave him our certifi- 
cates, the reading of which pleased him much. In 
the love of Christ towards them I communicated a 



SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA, 189 

little out of the overflowing of my soul. Before we 
separated, the Prince kindly offered us free access to 
whatever place we might feel ourselves disposed to 
visit, prisons, poorhouses, etc. 

"We went to see the Princess Metchersky. She is 
a woman of superior mental abilities, greatly improved 
and directed to the right channel for usefulness by the 
grace and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. As she is 
well acquainted with several languages — French, En- 
glish, German, etc., — she has been much engaged in 
translating several works and religious tracts into the 
Russian language ; she has them printed and widely 
circulated in this vast empire. She was an instrument 
in the Lord's hands in fostering religious impressions 
in the mind of the Emperor, when he first came 
under the powerful convictions of the Spirit of Truth. 
As a proof that the Emperor is in the daily practice 
of reading the Scriptures, she stated to us that some 
years since they agreed to begin to read the Bible at 
the same time, one chapter of the Old Testament in 
the morning, and another of the Ne^w Testament in 
the evening, that, however far separated, they might 
both every day read the same chapter; and as they 
correspond, the Emperor in his letters often alludes to 
the particular religious impressions made on his mind 
by his reading that day; by which she knows that he 
continues the practice. He wishes her to translate 
and print the excellent work of William Penn, called 
* No Cross, No Crown ; * believing that it would be 
highly beneficial, especially to those of high rank in 
the Empire. Our next visit was to the Minister of the 



140 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

Interior; his wife is seriously disposed, as also appears 
to be the Princess Shabatoff, who resides with them. 

" 9th. Yesterday r'.nd to-day have been under sore 
distress from what we have seen and felt in the abodes 
of wretchedness anc misery. The prison near the 
Admiralty is so filthy, and the air so impure, that it 
much affected body and mind. The prisoners, by 
their emaciated countenances, show that they also 
suffer by it. Ten of them were fastened, two and two, 
to a long chain, marching out to Siberia; what suffer- 
ings must these poor creatures have to endure, during 
so long a journey, to be performed on foot, and in the 
severity of a winter like this ! May the Lord be 
pleased to open our way, in due time, to plead for so 
many sufferers, that their distress may be relieved. 
Among other places, we visited the houses of correc- 
tion (it should rather be houses of misery), poorhouses, 
and also their great hospital. To some of these poor 
sufferers we were enabled to administer the consola- 
tions of the gospel, and we found broken and contrite 
spirits prepared to receive our testimony. 

" 14th. Our engagements have continued to be 
among the poor, and in visiting several schools. The 
Prince Alexander has encouraged us to pay a visit to 
Michael, the Metropolitan of the Greek Church, and 
kindly offered to make way for it. We accordingly 
went to his residence this afternoon. The monastery 
is called ' Alexander Nevsky.' It is about three miles 
out of town, and is a great mass of buildings. The 
Metropolitan, to receive us simply attired Quakers, 
had put on his rich pontifical garments; under his 



SIX MONTHS IN R USSIA 141 

large purple robe was a richly embroidered garment; 
he had on his head a white tiara or mitre, on the front 
of which was ? cross made of emeralds, diamonds, 
and other precious stones ; from a golden chain on 
his neck hung a fine picture of one of their saints, 
and in his hands was a large string of amber beads. 
He received us with much affability, and made us sit 
down by him ; he soon began to inquire of our re- 
ligious principles and practices, and much approved 
of our reasons for not conforming to the compliments, 
language, and fashions of the world ; the account we. 
gave him of the Christian discipline exercised over the 
members of our society pleased him much; he in- 
quired also into our manner of conducting our religious 
worship; our care and practice in the acknowledg- 
ment of our ministers, and what object they have in 
going abroad in the service of the gospel. We gave 
him the perusal of our certificates ; he then said that 
he had not heard of any people acting on grounds so 
scriptural, and conformable to ancient apostolic prac- 
tice. We could not help, in allusion to some of the 
subjects that were treated upon", contrasting his rich 
attire with our simple one, and their pompous way of 
ivorship with the simplicity of ours. We made several 
attempts to withdraw, but he evidently wished to have 
further conversation with us ; ordered tea to be brought 
in ; and finally, on parting, he accompanied us to the 
door of the outer room, and, taking us by the hand, 
desired that we might remember one another in our 
prayers. 

"We went thence to see Philaret, who is an Arch« 



142 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

bishop and Vicar of the Metropolitan. His habitation 
is also in the monastery. His ai^rtment is of great 
simplicity, like the cell of a monk ; the little furniture 
in it corresponds therewith ; his dress is the same that 
the Greek clergy have worn for several ages— a black 
gown, ecclesiastic cap on his head, a long beard, and 
his long hair hanging on his shoulders. He is a man 
of learning, acquainted with most of the ancient and 
modern oriental languages ; but he bears the marks 
of great humility, and is considered a man of piety 
and spiritual mindedness. From what passed during 
the long opportunity we had with him, he deserves 
such a character. He stated that the knowledge of 
ancient languages may facilitate the understanding 
of the words written, but that the Spirit of God alone 
can give a right knowledge of the things of God; for 
they can only be spiritually discerned. In a very 
modest manner, he said that he should wish to know 
why we declined the practice, so general among the 
Christian churches, of partaking of the communion, 
or, as he called it, the eucharist. jVfter stating to him 
what we apprehend constitutes the real Christian, 
according to the definition given in the Scriptures, *If 
any man be in Christ, he is a new creature,* we de- 
scribed what this new birth or new man is ; then we 
proceeded to answer his question, showing what bread, 
living bread, the Christian is to feed upon — in reality 
and not in shadows ; that to live on Christ, through 
His Spirit, is the only living bread of the soul ; it is 
the only food that nourishes it unto eternal life. On 
which he said : * We have had hermits amongst us. 



SIX 3I0NTHS m RUSSIA. 143 

who, from various causes, have lived entirely secluded 
from the world, to whom it would have been impossible 
to participate in the outward communion of bread and 
wine, or in any of the ceremonies in the worship of 
God or other like practices, but who, nevertheless, in 
their solitude did really feed on the Lord Jesus Christ 
by His Spirit, through living faith in Him ; they had 
no places of worship to resort to, no man to minister 
to them, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Minister of 
the Sanctuary, was their minister, and their worship 
was in spirit and in truth.' Philaret further said : 'All 
these forms, ceremonies, and ordinances, that have 
been introduced into the churches, though they be 
performed with ever so much sincerity and devotion, 
can only be, as the law was to the Jews, " a school- 
master to bring us to Christ." He is the end of all 
these things and their substance.' Philaret has been 
a useful instrument of much improvement among the 
clergy. The Emperor, who knows his worth, places 
great confidence in him ; to him, therefore, is com- 
mitted chiefly the selection of suitable persons, best 
qualified by their piety to fill important places in the 
Greek church, and at the head of their large schools. 
These are chiefly composed of the sons of the clergy; 
they pass from these schools to the clerical office, or 
stations in the civil department ; every one intended 
for the priesthood must marry before he can be or-' 
dained ; but when he loses his wife by death, he can- 
not marry another ; if he chooses, he can retire to a 
monastery, and thus become eligible for a higher 



144 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

station in the church than simply that of a priest. 
The monks do not marry. 

" 22d. We have had various religious opportuni- 
ties. Some of these were held at our lodgings, where 
Skotchinsky has brought several pious persons like 
himself. They are wearied out with their forms and 
ceremonies, and seek after the substantial realities of 
religion. Some of them speak German, and have 
gratefully received religious tracts in that language. 
We have visited several of these people in their fami- 
lies. They are mostly in humble life, and perhaps 
better prepared to receive the simple truths of the 
gospel with readiness. There are some, nevertheless, 
of a higher rank whose hearts appear broken down by 
the power of Truth. This day we had an agreeable 
visit from Reichel, a Moravian bishop, who, with his 
wife and daughter, are on their way to Sarepta, on the 
Caspian Sea. He appears to be an humble and pious 
man. 

" 23d. Spent some time at the Senator Hablitz's, 
for the second time. He was ambassador to Persia 
for several years, and has returned in very poor health. 
He now feels much more concerned to seek after the 
things pertaining to his soul's salvation than the poli- 
tics of this world, in which he had been absorbed for 
many years of his life. We were met there by Skotch 
insky, who is of one of the most ancient and noble 
families of this empire. He takes great interest in 
prisons and schools, and he wished to hear our obser- 
vations on our visits to those places. We hope he 
may be of service towards the removal of some of the 



SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 145 

great miseries that we have beheld in many of these 
places." 

At this cxme Mr. Grellet writes to Mr. William 
Dillwyn. 

"Petersburg, 23d of Twelfth Month, 1818. 

'' This is a great place, the capital of a great empire; 
though we see that much is to be done, and that there 
is an open door with many precious minds, I have 
never entertained any prospect of our doing great 
things ; yet I rejoice in the humble station of a waterer. 
Divine aid is afforded to diffuse a few of the drops that 
He Himself first puts into the vessel, over some of His 
precious and thirsty plants, to whose acquaintance He 
brings us. From the accounts some may have of our 
often meeting with great and public characters, and of 
the open door that the dear Master has been pleased 
to set before us in many of them, they may conclude 
that we ride about on the king's horse ; but, from the 
exalted state in which Mordecai appeared placed, he 
saw and felt full well the humble station he must 
speedily resume. Though there is an outside washing 
and anointing, yet the sackcloth may remain under- 
neath ; and, as to myself, I see very little prospect of 
its being loosened from my loins so long as I continue 
in this mutable state. But do not conclude from this 
that I repine in any degree, as complaining of my 
allotted portion ; for contrariwise, I may even now, as 
frequently, through the mournful days of my pilgrim- 
age, 'with the voice of thanksgivings and praises 
publish the Lord's wondrous works/ They have been 
marvellously displayed on our behalf, poor solitary 



146 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

pair as wc often feel to be, when going from city to 
city and from nation to nation." 

The Journal proceeds : 

" 24th. My beloved friend, William Allen, being 
unwell, I went alone to Ochta, to attend the meeting 
there. I walked the whole distance, going and return- 
ing, and enjoyed the retirement of the walk; the 
blessed Master condescended, in mercy, to be with me 
in the way, and to enable me to renew my covenant 
with Him. He has also renewed my faith in His 
promise that He would lead me and protect me in the 
path of duty. Our meeting at Ochta was owned by 
His Divine presence. We are permitted to have many 
seasons of refreshment from the Lord with our dear 
friend Daniel Wheeler and his family. Our fellowship 
of spirit is sweet. This evening I spent a little time 
at Count Lieven's with his family, which leaves a 
precious savor on my mind. 

** 28th. We have passed, this morning, about two 
hours with prince Alexander Galitzin, which we gene- 
rally do every Second-day morning, from nine to 
eleven o'clock, for the purpose of religious retirement, 
and to wait together on the Lord; or for mutual 
religious edification. W^e have also frequent seasons 
of this sort with the Princess Metchersky, her sister 
the Princess Sophia, and several others, both those in 
high rank and of the poorer class. The Lord is 
no respecter of persons ; He is good to all that seek 
Him, and to all that call upon Him. 

" 3 1st. We had a visit from five piouS persons ; one 
is called a General. Three of them appear to be men 



SIX MONTHS m RUSSIA. 147 

of meek and quiet spirits, who have withdrawn from 
outward forms of worship and ceremonies, and seek 
for God in the temple of their hearts. We had a 
satisfactory time together. 

"Ninth of First Month, 1819. The last few days 
we have been very closely engaged in visiting various 
extensive public institutions, mostly under the care of 
the Empress- mother. Among these are retreats for 
poor widows ; hospitals ; a deaf and dumb establish- 
ment, an institution for about two thousand children, 
w^here every care in a moral and physical sense appears 
to be bestowed. The foundling hospital is also on a 
very extensive scale ; at a proper age the children are 
well instructed; some receive a complete education, 
others learn a variety of useful trades. In these visits 
we were accompanied by Prince Galitzin, uncle of 
Prince Alexander. He has the general oversight of 
all these institutions of the Empress mother, and has 
readily made way for our having religious opportuni- 
ties whenever we felt it our duty. 

"nth. The Emperor, who was absent, has now 
returned to Petersburg, and sends us word by the 
Prince Alexander Galitzin that, as soon as he can 
make way for it, he wishes to see us. 

" 15th. Accompanied by Skotchinsky, we visited 
some poor pious families, among whom we have found 
Christian faith exemplified. We had also a solemn 
season with a young man, who, constrained by Divine 
love, has left bright prospects in the world to go as a 
missionary to Siberia ; he feels much for the prisoners 
sent there, and for the pagan nations thereabouts ; he 



148 STEFUEN GRELLET. 

is now endeavoring to acquire their language, and has 
begun the translation of the New Testament to take 
with him ; it is to be printed at the Bible House here, 
where they have in the press, or are preparing to print, 
the Scriptures in twenty-eight different languages. 

"On our return to our lodgings we found a mes- 
senger from the Emperor waiting for us, with the 
information that he would receive a visit from us at 
six this evening. At the hour appointed another 
messenger came to show us the way to the private 
apartments of the Emperor. We found him alone, 
and he received us with great affability, *Like old 
friends,' he said. He made us sit down on a sofa" on 
each side of him, and recurred feelingly to the visit 
we paid him in London, by which, he said, his mind 
was encouraged and strengthened under the trying 
circumstances then attending him. He made many 
inquiries of a religious character, which evinced his 
concern to obtain a saving knowledge of the blessed 
Truth ; he has a good understanding of the Scriptures, 
and clear views of that salvation which is through faith 
in our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose grace and merits 
alone he trusts. The influence of the Holy Spirit is 
a subject on which he appears to delight to dwell, 
being, as he calls it, one of the corner stones of the 
Christian religion, for if a man has not the Spirit of 
Christ he is none of His ; and if the things of God 
can only be known by the Spirit of God, then what 
hope of salvation can a man have who disregards that 
Spirit? He inquired of the nature of our various 
religious engagements since we had come into Russia, 



SIX MONTHS IN R USSIA. ~ 149 

and in what state we had found the public establish- 
ments, particularly the prisons. We were glad to 
have the opportunity to acquaint him with the wretched 
situation of several of these, and of the poorhouses 
also. We alluded especially to the prison at Abo; 
we showed him the sketch, taken there, of a man with 
his fetters upon him. The Emperor was much affected, 
and said, 'These things ought not to be ; they shall 
not continue so.' We also represented the case of the 
man there who had borne these heavy chains eighteen 
years for having threatened, in an unguarded moment, 
to strike his mother. The Emperor appears to be 
much interested in the subject of public education ; we 
therfore told him of the visit we made to the Lancas- 
trian school, and how greatly pained we had been in 
noticing there, and at the printing office, that their 
lessons were a selection of sentiments calculated to 
demoralize the people, and bring them into a far worse 
state than that in which their ignorance places them 
at present ; that, on this account, we had been induced 
^o begin to prepare a selection from the Scriptures, 
under the name of * Scripture Lessons,' and we gave 
him an outline of the contents of the little work. The 
Emperor remained a few moments absorbed in thought- 
fulness, and then said: * You have done the very thing 
that I was anxious should be done ; I had for a long 
time been contemplating how that mighty engine, 
general public education, might be used for the pro- 
motion of the kingdom of Christ, by bringing the 
people to the knowledge of the dear Redeemer, and 



150 STEPDEN QRELLET. 

to the practice of Christian virtues ; send me imme- 
diately what you have prepared.' 

" The Emperor spoke in strong terms of his regard 
for Daniel Wheeler, and considered his coming to 
Russia a blessing to the people. ' It was not,' he said, 
' the cultivation of morasses, nor any outward object, 
that led me to wish to have some of your Friends 
come and settle here, but a desire that, by their genuine 
piety and uprightness in life and conversation, an 
example may be set before my people for them to 
imitate; and your friend Wheeler sets such an ex- 
ample.' After this he said, * Before we separate for 
the present, let us spend a short time in religious re- 
tirement together.' We were disposed to do so, for 
we felt the Lord's presence and power very near ; we 
continued for a time in solemn silence ; our spirits 
were contrited together ; after a while, feeling my 
mind clothed with the spirit of prayer and supplica- 
tion, I bowed before the Divine IMajesty on my knees, 
the Emperor kneeled by my side ; we had a grateful 
sense that the Lord condescended graciously to hear 
our prayers. When we retired the Emperor expressed 
a desire shortly to see us again. We were about two 
hours with him. 

" 13th. Our departure appearing to be at hand has 
brought us under very close engagements during these 
last days ; we have had many services of a public and 
more private character ; some of these partings, which 
most probably are a final separation from one another, 
have been very solemn ; we rejoice that we can enter- 
tain the hope, that we leave behind us a seed that the 



SIX MONTHS m RUSSIA. 151 

Lord has visit^.d. Many of our private opportunities 
are also tendering seasons ; the one we had this eve- 
ning with the Emperor was particularly so. Having 
sent us information that he would be pleased to see us, 
we went at the hour appointed. He again received 
us in his own apartment, to which we went by a private 
door and staircase, without passing among the guards, 
or the persons attending at the palace. He received 
us with cordiality as before. One of the first things 
he said was that the chains we saw on the prisoners at 
Abo were now removed, and that the man we had told 
him of, who had been eighteen years loaded with fet- 
ters, was now liberated, and orders were given for the 
better treatment of the prisoners generally. He re- 
quested also that, in the course of our visit through 
Russia, we would communicate directly to him what- 
ever we might notice in the prisons, or other places, 
that we might think proper to bring before him. The 
Military Governor had related to him what we had 
said of the improvements that might be made in the 
prisons in Petersburg, and he was pleased that the 
Governor had so speedily attended to it; he added 
that the Empress, his mother, had given him some 
relation of the visit we had made to her, with which 
she had been very much pleased. She told him what 
had been said respecting the neglected education of 
the daughters of the poor, which she had taken much 
to heart, and he also felt so much the necessity of a 
speedy remedy, that yesterday he made appropriation 
of money sufficient to establish and support six schools 
for that class in this city, so that they might receive a 



162 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

virtuous and religious education. He said he had 
carefully looked over the Scripture Lessons that we 
had prepared, and was delighted with them; that had 
we come to Russia for no other service than this, it 
was accomplishing an important work ; that he would 
have these Lessons introduced for the use of all the 
schools in his dominions. He also gave us an account 
of the manner in which he was educated from a child, 
under the care of his grandmother, the Empress 
Catherine. The tutors placed over him, he says, were 
men possessed of some good qualities, but they were 
not Christian believers, consequently his early educa- 
tion was calculated to estrange him from serious im- 
pressions ; and yet, after the manner of the Greek 
Church, he was trained up in the habit of repeating 
some formal prayers morning and evening, but he 
disliked the practice of it ; several times, however, after 
having gone to rest, he so strongly felt the convictions 
of sin for the impropriety of some parts of his conduct 
during the day, that he was constrained to rise from 
his bed, and on his knees with tears to entreat the 
Lord's forgiveness, and strength to act with more 
watchfulness. These strong convictions continued 
with him for a length of time; but, by degrees, for 
want of attending to them, they became more and 
more faint; with dissipation^ sin gained more and more 
ascendency over him ; but in the year 1812 the Lord's 
visitation in love and mercy was renewedly extended 
to him in a powerful manner. It was about that time 
that a pious person (it was the Prince Alexander 
Galitzin, who had been brought up with him) recom- 



StX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 153 

mended him to read the Scriptures, and gave him a 
Bible, which he had not seen before. * I devoured it,' 
said the Emperor, ' finding in it words so suitable to, 
and descriptive of, the state of my mind. The Lord 
by His Divine Spirit was also pleased to give me an 
understanding of what I read therein ; it is to this 
inward Teacher alone that I am indebted ; therefore I 
consider Divine inspiration, or the teachings of the 
Spirit of God, as the sure foundation of saving knowl- 
edge.' 

" He said much more on these subjects in a feeling 
manner. We entered pretty fully into the nature of 
the peaceable kingdom of Christ, and to what the 
Spirit of the dear Redeemer, who is Love, would lead 
all those who are obedient to His dictates ; on which 
he stated how great his soul's travail had been that 
wars and bloodshed might cease for ever from the 
earth ; that he had passed sleepless nights on account 
of it, deeply deploring the woes and misery brought 
on humanity by war ; and that whilst his mind was 
bowed before the Lord in prayer, the plan of all the 
crowned heads joining in the conclusion to submit to 
arbitration whatever differences might arise amon^ 
them, instead of resorting to the sword, had presented 
itself to his mind in such a manner that he rose from 
his bed, and wrote what he then so sensibly felt; that 
his intentions had been misunderstood or misrepre- 
sented by some, but that love to God and to man was 
his only motive in the Divine sight. He was in 
Paris at the time he formed that plan. 

" We had spent a considerable time conversing on 



154 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

these very important subjects, when he said, 'We are 
then going to be soon separated in this world, but I 
am a full believer that, through the Lord's Spirit, we 
may, though separated one from another, feel the fel- 
lowship and communion of spirit; for with the Lord 
there is no limitation of space.' He requested that we 
would write to him as a Christian friend, through 
Prince Alexander Galitzin. ' Finally,' said he, * I have 
one more request to make, that, before we separate, 
we silently unite once more in waiting on the Lord, if 
so be that He condescend to give us a manifestation 
of His Divine Life and presence, as He did on former 
occasions.' We were prepared to accede to his request, 
for we felt in a precious manner the wings of heavenly 
love to be stretched over us. The Lord was present 
during a solemn silence that came over us ; our souls 
were very reverently prostrated before Him ; He Him- 
self ministering to us in a most gracious manner. 
After a while, in the love of Christ, I felt constrained 
to impart a few words to the Emperor for his encour- 
agement, that he may hold fast in the ways of the 
Lord unto the end, fully relying on the efficacy of 
His Divine grace to preserve him from all evil, and to 
strengthen him for every good work. Ha was bathed 
in tears ; then dear Allen, on bended knees, supplicated 
the Lord on his behalf and that of his people. The 
Emperor, who had kneeled by him, continued some 
time thus prostrated, after William had ceased utter- 
ance. It is very humbling and wonderful to me, to 
see how the Lord has opened a way in these nations 
where I saw none at all ; truly the promise, ' the Lord 



SI^ MONTHS IN R USSIA. 155 

will provide,' has been fulfilled in a remarkable man- 
ner; besides, a door, towards the further labors of 
love that may be required of us in this empire, is now 
open, so far at least as this can be effected by the good 
will of the Emperor; but to the Lord alone we must 
look to give us an entrance into the hearts of those 
we may visit, to send forth His help to us, and His 
blessing on our feeble efforts to advocate His blessed 
Truth. 

" 1 5th. Prince Alexander Galitzin sent us a message 
last evening that the Empress Elizabeth, the wife of 
the Emperor, wished to see us this forenoon, if we 
could possibly spare a little of our time to her. We 
went to the palace this morning, and she received us 
in her private apartment in a very modest manner, 
even apologizing for her request to us to come to see 
her ; she had for some time wished for such an inter- 
view, but had been fearful to propose it ; what she had 
heard of my visit at Carlsruhe made her regret not to 
have seen me there ; and now what the Emperor told 
her of us induced her to request this visit. Her heart 
was tender, and prepared of the Lord to receive what, 
in His love and counsel, we felt it to be our religious 
duty to impart to her ; she was bathed in tears. From 
what she told us it is evident that Jesus, the Saviour, 
is precious to her; she is of a retired character; is 
seldom seen in public when she can avoid it; her dress 
generally is very simple ; when she goes out she has 
only a plain two-horse carriage, with the simple cipher 
E upon it, whereas all the nobles have generally four 
horses to their equipages ; the Empress-mother has 



156 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

six. The Empress Elizabeth told us how frequently 
she envied the humble station in life of those maidens 
who carry the milk about Petersburg, in order that 
she might live in privacy and religious retirement, 
which she has not in her power to do now. This has 
been a very satisfactory visit. 

*' We dined at John Venning's ; none were present 
besides his family, and Prince Alexander Galitzin, 
Papoff, Paterson, and the widow of a pious clergyman, 
who is now the companion of the Empress Elizabeth; 
through the Emperor she had heard we were to dine 
here, and had invited herself, as she said, though she 
is a frequent visitor at the Vennings'. She is a pious 
woman, who has learned both in the school of affliction 
and in that of Christ ; t*he Empress is much attached 
to her. The Prince gave us several more interesting 
particulars respecting the Emperor; among others, 
the peculiar circumstances attending the renewing of 
those religious impressions that of latter years have 
been of an abiding nature with him. When the 
information was received at Petersburg that the armies 
of Napoleon had entered Moscow, a general panic 
came upon the inhabitants, and they packed up their 
valuables to take their flight into some more secure 
place; for they expected the French would soon 
march for that city. The Emperor was preparing to 
go with the body of troops collected there to oppose 
them. Prince Alexander Galitzin had at that time 
many men employed in repairing his palace, which 
he continued calmly to go on with, while so many 
others were panic-stricken. Some envious persons 



SIJT 3I0NTIIS IN RUSSIA. 157 

told the Emperor what he was dohig, and that he 
must be a traitor. He went to the Prince, and queried, 
' GaHtzin, what are you doing ? what means all this ? 
every one prepares to flee, and you are building?' 
^ Oh,' said the Prince, ' I am here in as sure a place 
of safety as any I could flee to ; the Lord is my defence, 
in Him I trust.' 'Whence have you such confidence?' 
replied the Emperor, * who assures you of it ?' 'I feel 
it in my heart,' answered the Prince,' ' and it is also 
stated in this Divinely inspired volume ' — holding 
forth the Bible to the Emperor. By some inadvertent 
motion of the hand, the Bible fell upon the floor — open, 
* Well, permit me,' said the Prince, ' to read to you in 
that very place on which the Bible lies open before us.' 
It was the ninety-first Psalm ; on hearing which, the 
Emperor stood for a while like a man astonished. The 
army, during that time was marching out of the city. 
It is the usual practice on such occasions, or when the 
Emperor is to be absent for a length of time, that the 
last place he leaves is their great church. He repaired 
thither ; the portion of Scripture read on the occasion 
was again the ninety-first Psalm. The Emperor sent 
for the priest, and queried, * Who told you to make 
choice of that particular passage of Scripture this day?' 
He replied, ' That nobody had told him, but that he 
had desired in prayer that the Lord would direct him 
to the particular portion of the inspired volume he 
should read, to encourage the Emperor, and that he 
apprepended that psalm was the word of the Lord to 
him.' The Emperor proceeded some distance on his 
way; and late in the evening he felt his mind under. 



158 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

great seriousness, and desired that the Bible should 
be read to him. When the person who came in for 
that purpose began, he also read the ninety- first Psalm. 
The Emperor interrupting him queried, * Who told 
you to read this ? has Galitzin told you ?' He replied 
that he had not seen the Prince, nor had any one told 
him what to read ; but that on being told he was sent 
for to read to the Emperor from the Bible, he had de- 
sired that the Lord would direct him to what was 
most appropriate for the occasion, and accordingly he 
had selected this portion of Scripture. The Emperor 
felt astonished at this, and paid the greater attention 
to what was read, believing that this must be of the 
Lord's ordering; he was therefore very solemnly and 
tenderly impressed, and from that time he concluded, 
morning and evening, to read privately a chapter in 
the Bible. He was the next day with the Princess 
Metchersky, at Tver. They agreed to begin the Bible 
together, and regularly to read it every day, so that 
they might both read the same portion on the same 
day, and be able to communicate to one another the 
particular impressions or reflections the reading of the 
day might have produced. The Prince tells us that 
the Emperor has directed proof sheets of the * Scrip- 
ture Lessons ' to be regularly sent us, that we may see 
how the work progresses. 

" 9th. We spent, as we usually do once a week, 
about two hours with Prince Alexander Galitzin. He 
told us that the Emperor had given orders for the 
immediate translation, from the Slavonian into the 
Russian language, of those portions of the Bible, in 



SIX MONTHS m RUSSIA. 159 

our Scripture Lessons, that are not already translated, 
and to have those Lessons immediately printed. The 
New Testament in Russ is now printed, but the Bible 
is not yet done, the translation not being completed^ 
The Emperor being apprised that the time of our de- 
parture is near, has directed the Prince to have letters 
of introduction prepared for us, addressed to the gov- 
ernors of the provinces through which we travel, and 
to his ambassadors to those nations where we may 
come, recommending us to them ; the expressions used 
by the Prince are, * to recommend you, as being well 
known to him, the Emperor,'" 

The Memoirs of Mr. Wheeler, who was successfully 
conducting the drainage works at Ochta, have been 
published. During four of the darkest months of the 
year, he says, Messrs. Grellet and Allen ceased not to 
hold two meetings a week in his room. They left us 
" with minds full of peace, — beloved and regretted by 
all who had the happiness of becoming acquainted 
with them. The stream of gospel love which was at 
seasons permitted to flow, when channels were open 
to receive it, has made, I believe, an impression on the 
minds of some which will never be obliterated ; and 
has clearly evinced whose servants they are ! They 
were, I think, of all men most fit to move in such 
a work, in such a place, and under such circum- 
stances." 

They travelled in three days and two nights to 
Tver, where they had " interesting engagements.'' 

Thence to Moscow, where a still wider field of 
usefulness claimed their attention. They visited 



IGO STEPHEN GRELLET. 

prisons, going from ward to ward ; they stood by the 
bedside of wounded soldiers in hospitals ; they con- 
ducted services in retreats for the aged poor; they 
gathered boys around them in charitable schools; 
they lingered among the children of a foundling hos- 
pital, where there were no less than eight thousand 
eight hundred children indoors and out ; accompanied 
by the Governor they visited houses of correction and 
workhouses ; at the homes of the ecclesiastical 
dignitaries, of the military governor, of the chief 
minister of police, and in other houses they held 
religious meetings. The substance of their testimony 
was, — the love of God to men, and that '' all outward 
rites and observances are but forms, Christ and His 
Spirit are the substance; this we must press after, 
without it nothing else can avail us." 

The noteworthy fact of these extraordinary labors 
was their quiet unostentatious nature, and that they 
followed one another in such ordered sequence. 

They were to many persons like the soft breath of 
God's south wind after a long frost-bound winter. 

"21st. We were again," says the Journal, "with 
the Prince Sergius Galitzin, and several of his family ; 
some of the subjects introduced by the Prince were 
the spirituality of religion. Divine worship, saving 
baptism, etc. Among those present was a Romish 
priest, who did not appear pleased with the matters 
treated upon, but though showing his uneasiness, he 
kept silence. In the evening we went to General 
Gourard's. We met the General at the door, going 
out, but we were introduced to his wife's apartments, 



SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 161 

where we found about fifteen ladies together. On 
our first coming among them, total strangers to one 
another, our minds were solemnized ; a feeling sense 
was given that the Lord's presence was there ; it seemed 
as if we had suddenly come into a meeting of spirit- 
ually minded persons ; very few words passed between 
us, but we were all gathered together into solemn silence 
and prostration of soul before God, evidently * drinking 
together into the one Spirit.' We had continued some 
time in this state, when, the love of Christ the dear 
Redeemer constraining me, I began to speak as by 
His Divine Spirit He gave me utterance : we had a 
contriting season ; indeed I have seldom known any 
select company of my beloved frieftds, when more of 
the Lord's baptizing power has been felt than we then 
witnessed together. After the conclusion of that 
solemn meeting, we gave some account of ourselves ; 
for we were as great strangers to the company as they 
were to us ; we handed to the mistress of the house 
the letters we had for her from the Princess Metchersky. 

Among those present were two princesses from 
Georgia, sent to this empire as hostages ; another is 
the Countess Toutschkoff, and two of her sisters; the 
others were of the same rank. They are in the prac- 
tice of meeting frequently together, silently to wait 
upon the Lord; they have become acquainted with 
the operations of His Spirit, and the power of Truth, 
under, which they have witnessed the one baptism, 
and are also favored at seasons to partake together of 
the one bread, even Christ the bread of life. 

" The Countess Toutschkoff gave us an interesting 



162 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

narrative of the manner in which she was first brought 
to the conviction that there is a secret influence of the 
Spirit of God in the hear^ of man. The impressions 
made upon her were such that she can never doubt 
that it was the Lord's work. It occurred about three 
months before the French army entered Russia ; the 
General, her husband, was v/ith her, on their estates 
near Toula ; she dreamed that she was at an inn in a 
town unknown to her, that her father came into her 
chamber, having her only son by the hand, and said 
to her in a most pitiful tone, 'all thy comforts are 
cut off, he has fallen (meaning her husband), he has 
fallen at Borodino.' She woke in great distress, but, 
knowing that her husband was beside her, she con- 
sidered it as a dream, and tried to compose herself 
again to sleep ; the dream was repeated, and attended 
with such increased distress of mind, that it was a long 
time before she could rise above it and fall asjeep 
again. A third time she dreamed the same; her 
anguish of mind was then such that she woke her 
husband and queried, * Where is Borodino ?' and then 
mentioned her dream ; he could not tell her where 
that place was ; they and her father carefully looked 
over the maps of the country, but could not discover 
any such place. It was then but an obscure spot, but 
has since become renowned for the bloody battle 
fought near it. The impressions, however, made upon 
the Countess were deep, and her distress great; she 
considered this as a warning given her of the Lord, 
that great afflictions were to come upon her, under 
}yhich she believed that His Divine grace and mercy 



SIX MONTHS IN RUSSIA. 163 

could alone sustain her. From that period her views 
of the world became changed ; things that belong to the 
salvation of the soul, hitherto disregarded, were now 
the chief object of her pursuit. She ceased to attend 
places of diversion, which formerly had been her 
delight; she looked forward to see what the Lord 
would do with her ; for she believed that she had not 
had mere dreams, but warnings, through the Lord's 
Spirit, of what was impending over her. At that 
time the seat of war was far off, but it soon drew 
near: before the French armiese ntered Moscow, the 
General Toutschkoff was placed at the head of the 
army of reserve ; and one morning her father, having 
her little son by the hand, entered the chamber of the 
inn at which she was staying ; in great distress, as she 
had beheld him in her dream, he cried out, ' He has 
fallen, he has fallen at Borodino.' Then she saw her- 
self in the very same chamber,, and through the 
windows beheld the very same objects that she had 
seen in her dreams. Her husband was one of the 
many who perished in the bloody battle, fought near 
the river Borodino, from which an obscure village 
takes its name. 

*' The countess said that the impressions made upon 
her that the Lord, through His Spirit, communicates 
Himself to man, became strongly confirmed ; she was 
convinced that there is a sensible influence of the 
Divine Spirit; she endeavored to attend to it; one 
thing after another was unfolded to her of the * deep 
things of God' and those 'which concern the Lord 
Jesus Christ' ; and it was by this that she had become 



164 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

acquainted with the nature of spiritual worship. This 
was the case also with her two sisters, then present; 
the same conviction had been wrought on the minds 
of the other pious females, through the immediate 
operation of the Lord's Spirit and power; they knew 
it to be the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Truth, tliat 
leads into all truth. The Georgian princesses are in a 
humble and tender state; we were indeed all broken 
and contrited together before the Lord." 

Those who have read the able volumes of Mr. 
Wallace on Russia will remember that in two remark- 
able chapters he describes groups of pious persons, 
who in these days have separated themselves from the 
ceremonial observances of the Greek Church, and are 
to be found in almost all parts of the empire. A still 
newer evangelical movement is in progress, but neither 
of these must be confounded with Nihilism. 

Nor let such a fragment of personal history as that 
of the Countess Toutschkoff be received with incredu- 
lity. No doubt there is in some persons a morbid love 
of the marvellous. But a creed that should accept 
nothing beyond the province of a common and ordi- 
nary experience would scarcely be a creed. Men of 
cool, calm" temperament, who have had much inter- 
course with Christianly enlightened and pious persons, 
have been constrained to admit the direct operations 
of a preternatural power in the awakening of men to 
the realities of an unseen spiritual world. The in- 
credulity as to these " heavenly visions " may be a 
deliberate closing of the heart to incontestable evidence. 
Moreover, a time like that under notice, of Napoleon's 



SrJr Mo NTHS IN R USSIA . 165 

march to Moscow, \vhs one of inconceivable conster- 
nation. He came as the invincible, at the head of 
nearly half a million of men. At such a period there 
were compassionate drawings and movements of the 
Divine love, not conformable to ordmary methods. 
" God fulfils Himself In many ways." Blessed are they 
who In such crises permit themselves to be led in the 
darkness by the loving hand of their Father. Hap-= 
plly there are in all times those, — 

" Whose hearts are fresh and simple, 
Who have faith in God and Nature ; 
Who believe that in all ages 
Every human heart is human ; 
That in every mortal bosom 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings. 
For the good they comprehend not ; 
That the feeble hands, and helpless, 
Groping blindly in the darkness, 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness. 
And are lifted up and strengthened." 



CHAPTER XII. 

VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 

^ r^HE following principles may better enable us to 
JL understand the persuasive fidelity and most 
remarkable work of Mr. Grellet at this period of his 
history. 

He writes of himself, as we have seen, to Mr. Dillwyn 
as filling " the humble station of a waterer." He had 
no exaggerated expectations of the entire conversion 
of cities and nations. ' He knew that Christianity was 
placed in the soil of humanity as a living seed, and he 
aimed In his travels through the European kingdoms 
to guard and promote the growth of that seed. While 
his mission, after the European chaos of bloodshed, 
overturning s, and horrors, was largely philanthropic, 
he knew that through the ministration of the gracious 
Spirit there were in every nation those that feared 
God and worked righteousness, and his object con- 
tinually was to encourage, confirm, and strengthen the 
faith of such. 

God can only employ such instrumentality as is In 
union with Himself. " The all of God — His presence, 
wisdom, and power — dwells more than anywhere else 
in the nothing of the creature." By this Is not 
meant that the servant of the Lord has annihilated his 

(166) 



VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 167 

will and reason. He is in the completest possession 
of all his faculties. It is selfish ends and ambitions 
that are annihilated ; his eye is single, and his whole 
body is full of light. 

The Divine love is not a name, a single attribute. 
It is the infinite force of God Himself It is the 
atmosphere that wraps round all creatures. Selfhood 
cannot perceive, cannot receive, that love. It is in 
utter contrariety to it. But where selfhood is sub- 
duedj and the supremest emotions are free from its 
control, then the Divine love finds an agency suitable 
in every way for its propensions and actings towards 
the lost and tempted human race. 

The obedience of one who has waited on the Lord, 
that he might fulfil not his own purposes but God's, 
has in it all the certainties of doing the will of God. 
As we stand by the sea watching the receding tide, 
we soon observe the returning flow of the waters. 
Silently the mighty ocean, which bears fewer marks 
of the fall than the land, ha3 heard the voice of the 
great Creator. The obedience is most exact, instan- 
taneous, and perfect. The sea does not deny its own 
mighty forces, but uses them and keeps them all in 
absolute subjection to the wise and beneficent will of 
God. In like manner man becomes effective to do 
the Lord's work as, with " quick understanding in the 
fear of the Lord," he hearkens to and unfalteringly 
obeys His holy will. Thus with Stephen Grellet as 
with John, mighty works showed forth themselves in 
him. 

It may be held that he must have had most accom- 



ICB STEPHEN GRELLET. 

plished manners and cultured suavity, so that even his 
Quaker peculiarities did not offend distinguished 
persons. This is true. But is not courtesy and 
gentlemanliness in its finest tact and actings the fruit 
of the indwelling Spirit ? The Scriptures mention the 
** gentleness " of God; the apostle Paul besought the 
Corinthians by the " meekness and gentleness of Christ." 

Linked in closest sympathy, the two faithful friends 
left Russia and proceeded southward. A long and 
arduous journey lay before them. Stopping at different 
intervals in some of the towns on their route, they 
visited the German colonies of Mennonites, on the left 
shore of the Molotshnaia, spent some time among the 
truly Christian Malakans, and the neighboring settle- 
ment of the Duhobortzi, and then crossed the steppe 
from Altona, the last establishment of the Mennonites, 
to Perekop and the Crimea. The letters of introduc- 
tion with which they were furnished through the kind- 
ness of the Emperor Alexander, and the various civil 
and ecclesiastical authorities in Petersburg, opened 
the way for them wherever they came, and both in 
the mansion and the prison the Lord continued to 
prosper their labor of love. 

They encouraged on their way Christian witnesses 
and bishops, one of whom represented others as he 
said " This is one of the most precious days of my 
life, my faith in the Lord Jesus is greatly confirmed." 
They visited schools and hospitals; they mitigated 
the unspeakable tortures of prisoners in dungeons ; 
they bore testimony against the evils of war and strong 
drink; they held small meetings, whenever permitted, 



VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 169 

with clergy and piously disposed persons, and recom- 
mended simplicity in their worship^ and manner of 
living. During the progress of this journey they 
endured great inconveniences and privations. In the 
Crimea hov/ever, and at Sebastopol, they were received 
with kindness by the admiral, and were able to carry 
forward their mission among sailors, soldiers, and 
prisoners. 

After carefully weighing the subject, and supplica- 
ting Divine direction, they felt it right to proceed over 
the Black Sea to Constantinople. Stephen Grellet 
says as he approached the city of the Crescent : " I 
spent a night of watchfulness unto prayer, like Jacob, 
wrestling the whole night for the Lord's blessing, and 
towards morning the light of His countenance did very 
graciously arise upon me. My trust and confidence 
are renewed in Him, blessed and praised be His 
adorable name ! " 

Mr. T. W. Black, a merchant, came on board the 
Loi'd Cathcart to welcome them. Sir Robert Liston 
sent his dragoman janissary to bring their baggage 
from the ship. The ambassador and his lady very 
courteously pressed them to accept the hospitality of 
their palace ; they declined the invitation, having 
previously accepted that of Mr. Black. In Constanti- 
nople they found letters awaiting them from their 
homes, and also an expression of sympathy from 
Friends in. England, signed by William Forster. They 
exclaimed : " Oh how sweet it is, thus to have the 
unity and sympathy of the church ! This is indeed 
a word of comfort and encouragement that the Lord 



170 BTEPIIKJSt GRELLET. 

sends us in time of need. We received here a large 
supply of books of a religious character, and also 
some treating of our principles, in different languages, 
and a pretty good supply of New Testaments, sent us 
from Malta, in Greek, Latin and Italian. Some of the 
Testaments are in modern Greek." 

At that time it was death to a Turk to forsake 
Mohammedanism. Their chief concern therefore was 
with the Armenians and Greeks, to whom they gave 
Bibles and French books. " We had felt our minds 
drawn towards their great prison, called the Bagnio, 
and, through the dragoman, permission to visit it was 
obtained. It has now only five hundred prisoners, 
but in time of war especially it is very crowded; 
several thousands of poor fellow-beings are then 
immured in it. They are all mingled together, 
criminals and prisoners of war. All those that are 
able to labor are put to work in the ship-yards, 
arsenals, etc., contiguous to the prison. The latter is 
spacious and pretty airy during the summer, but very 
uncomfortable in rainy seasons or cold weather. The 
prisoners are mostly chained two and two ; no meat 
is given them ; the ration of bread allowed by the 
Government would be sufficient if they received it, 
but the various hands through which it has to pass 
before it comes to them retain a great part of it, so 
that in the end the poor prisoners receive not one half 
of their allotted portion, and they have in consequence 
emaciated locks ; some are so feeble that they can 
hardly drag themselves along. We had several 
opportunities with them through our dragoman. The 



VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 171 

Turkish officers who accompanied us did not appear 
to make any objection to it. We found but few 
attacked with the plague in the prison, at which we 
were surprised, for many parts of it are very filthy. 
This is thought to be owing to the free circulation of 
air. Whilst at work, which is from daylight to sun- 
set, except a quarter of an hour at noon to eat their 
morsel of bread, an officer has the oversight of ten 
prisoners, and with a stick, which he applies pretty 
freely, urges them on to their work. These poor 
prisoners have indeed a miserable life, in consequence 
of which many of them die. We visited other prisons, 
which are like the Segees in Russia; but here, as 
justice is quickly administered, they do not remain 
long. It frequently occurs that the police officers, 
without taking the trouble to carry the offender to 
prison, give him the bastinado on the spot where they 
take him, or, if carried to the prison, they administer 
it there on the soles of the feet. It is so severe, in 
some cases, that the sufferer dies in consequence of it. 
"The capitan pasha wished to see us. We found 
with him the captain of the port. His dragoman, 
who is a Greek prince, interpreted for us. The pasha 
wished to inquire into the object of our visit here, 
what other nations we had visited, etc. It opened the 
way for our pleading on behalf of the suffering 
prisoners. We told him it was the love of God and 
man that prompted us, not to see the country, or the 
curiosities of it, but to endeavor to press upon all men 
to live virtuous and pious lives. If they did so, they 
would love God and man, and desire to promote the 



172 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

good of all men. As wc parted, the captain of the 
port invited us to go and see the launch of a man-of- 
war. We told him that the most desirable sight he 
could give us would be that of a man of peace. These 
have been very painful engagements to us." 

Their time was thus spent in religious meetings, 
held sometimes in the large audience chamber of the 
British ambassador, and at others in that of the 
ambassador from St. Petersburg, where they were met 
by the plenipotentiaries of other nations ; also in 
visiting the Greek patriarch, and strangers from Prussia, 
Sweden, and Spain, whom they '' directed to the peace- 
ful spirit of Christ." They record : " Sir Robert Liston 
and his wife have acted towards us the part of dear 
friends, and greatly facilitated our religious services, 
when opportunity for such has presented." 

On the 25th of July, 18 19, they took passage for 
Smyrna, where they met a number of Greeks who 
were religiously disposed. " We have had," they 
state, '' some private and more public opportunities 
among them. We had several meetings also with the 
Armenians and others." 

Thence they sailed to the islands of the Archipelago, 
and speak of the beautiful island of Scio. They met 
with the chief Greeks of the island, on whom they 
urged motives of benevolence, and visited the country 
seat of Peole JMavrocordati, '' a very beautiful place." 

" It was," they say, " a treat to pass the night in a 
clean and cool lodging, and to sleep on a bed, w4iich 
we have very seldom done since we left Petersburg : 
yet, even here, as the man was arranging the bed- 



VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 173 

clothes, a scorpion near the pillow bit him so severely 
that his hand swelled considerably up to the arm, 
attended with much pain ; dressed with some alkali, 
it was, however, nearly well by morning. Scorpions 
are numerous in all these parts. Professor Bambass 
joined us at this house. We had a satisfactory 
religious meeting with them ; the purity and simplicity 
of the Christian religion, as set forth in the gospel by 
the apostles, was unfolded to them, and contrasted with 
the many ceremonies, Jewish and idolatrous practices, 
that have been devised and introduced into the nomi- 
nal church by Christian professors under various 
names. Bambass said, after the meeting concluded : 
* I fully unite with the testimony borne this evening 
among us ; I am in the monastic order ; I was intro- 
duced into it when very young, before my judgment 
was formed, or I was even of an age to form one. 
Monks have done much harm to the church, and they 
bear some of the strong marks the apostles gave of 
the apostasy.' He highly approved of our views of 
Divine worship, syid of the ministry. 

" Bishop Plato came here in the morning ; we had 
a full opportunity with him and others ; as some of 
them do not understand French, the Archbishop acted 
as interpreter. The particular subjects treated of were, 
redemption by our Lord Jesus Christ, His saving 
baptism, Divine worship, the influences of the Holy 
Spirit, the cause of the great declension in the church, 
and the way whereby man can rise again from his fallen 
estate ; all of which he rendered with much precision, 
as some competent judges told us afterwards." 



174 STEPHEN GR FLEET. 

Doubling Cape Colona they came to Athens. There 
they enjoyed much freedom in " reh'gious and edifying 
conversation." They met with a Capuchin friar who 
was very industrious in distributing the Holy Scrip- 
tures among the people generally. " He spends," they 
write, " much of his time in religious retirement, for 
he knows that it is in the temple of the heart that the 
Lord is to be found ; that there is the altar on which 
acceptable sacrifices are to be brought to the Lord ; 
and there must burn the light of truth continually. 
We encouraged him to keep this light bright and 
burning, and to gather the people to Christ their 
Teacher and Redeemer. He came to our lodgings in 
the evening, where he had refreshing from the Divine 
presence." They left New Testaments and religious 
tracts in different languages in his hands. 

Departing from Athens they came to Corinth, but 
found their spirits almost crushed under the influence 
of Mohammedan oppression. They were able, how- 
ever, to obtain interviews with the primate of the 
Greeks and observe, " We shall long remember the 
sweetness and tenderness of his spirit." At this time 
a serious illness came upon William Allen. No other 
course remained but that of his return to England. 
Stephen Grellet records : *' I enjoy these days of retire- 
ment, though clothed with great poverty. The Lord 
is also graciously pleased to settle my mind in much 
calmness and resignation, in the prospect of being left 
by my beloved companion and co-worker. To the 
Lord's guidance I must resign him. Great has been His 
goodness to me in granting me such a beloved one a§ 



VISIT TO TURKEY AND GREECE. 175 

fellow-helper through the various countries we have 
visited since leaving England. Now, instead of repin- 
ing at the prospect of a separation, my soul blesses 
the Lord for favors received, and is permitted also to 
hope for more ; though which way they will come I 
do not know ; but they all proceed from Him who is 
the God of all our sure mercies." 

In Corfu, Sir Thomas Maitland, Governor of the 
Ionian Isles, and commandant of the British forces in 
the Mediterranean, paid most courteous attentions to 
these holy men. Understanding that Stephen Grellet 
purposed going to Naples, he offered an English frigate 
for his use. Mr. Grellet told him that he could not 
go on a ship of war, as his errand was one of peace. 
Sir Thomas said : '' As you may meet with some 
difficulties among those bigoted Papists, at Naples and 
at Rome, I will have letters ready for our ambassadors 
there, also for the Chevalier de Medici, Prime Minister 
of the King of Naples, and also for the Cardinal Con- 
salvi, Prime Minister of the Pope ; he is my particular 
friend, and I shall have him apprised of your coming, 
before your arrival there." 

There may have been exceptions, but, as a rule, 
English officers of rank have borne towards the 
servants of Jesus Christ,' on foreign stations, a large- 
hearted hospitality and a reverential courteousness, 
which will not be forgotten by Him who teaches that 
the cup of cold water given in His name to a disciple 
shall not lose its reward. We have seen, as this narra- 
tive has been followed, many of these expressions of 
polite consideration and attention on the part of these 



176 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

gentlemen, and happily these kind and refreshing 
acts are not a thing of the past. 

From the Journal of Mr. Grellet we learn: — ''At 
sea, on the Adriatic. Previous to our separation, dear 
Allen and I had a very solemn and precious season 
before the Lord ; we felt the bond of gospel love 
uniting us closely, and perhaps more powerfully felt 
than at any time before ; but believing that our separa- 
tion is in the counsel of Him who, in His love and 
mercy, had banded us together, we resigned one 
another to His will, and we commit ourselves to His 
guidance and protection. I leave him peacefully, 
under the care of Doctor Skey, a very kind friend to 
him. The Doctor accompanied me on board the 
vessel at two p.m." 



CHAPTER XIII. 
AY SOUTHERN ITALY. 

MR. SEEBOHM very tenderly and appropriately 
writes : " Stephen Grellet has now arrived at 
a peculiarly interesting, if not a critical, period of his 
mission. In company with a beloved brother and 
fellow-laborer in the gospel of Christ, he had visited 
the Lutheran land of Gustavus Adolphus, — he had 
traversed the regions of the Greek Church, in the 
dominions of the CJudstian Alexander — he had been 
in the Crescent City, and had seen something of 
Mohammedan rule ; — he had mingled with the discor- 
dant elements of the motley group of believers and 
unbelievers, in some of the islands of the Archipelago, 
and in the Ionian Sea, and at Athens and Corinth. 
He had left his beloved companion at Corfu, and now, 
a solitary pilgrim, * alone, and yet not alone,' he had 
set his face towards the land of popes and cardinals. 
Himself at one time a child of Rome, then an infidel, 
now a Christian believer, and a minister of Christ in 
the religious Society of Friends — a Protestant of Pro- 
testants, — he was about to enter the precincts of the 
city of Leo and Hildebrand. It required a very close 
and humble walk with God, a very chaste adherence 
to the cause of Christ, a very prayerful attention tg 

(177) 



178 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and a very firm reli- 
ance upon ' the word of the truth of the gospel,' based 
upon the inspired records of the Bible, to come out 
unscathed from the ordeal that awaited him ; meekly 
bold, he had to ' speak the truth in love,' on all occa- 
sions and to all, without pusillanimously renouncing 
the simplicity and integrity of his own character, deter- 
mined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and Him 
crucified, seeking nothing, pleading for nothing save 
the truth as it is in Him. The sequel will show how 
he sustained the trial, and stood faithful to his God 
and Saviour." 

On the 13th of November, 18 19, he arrived in 
Naples, and took up his abode at " The Golden Eagle." 
Sir William A'Court, British Ambassador, received 
him kindly ; also Henry Lushington, Esq. The latter 
showed him much attention. At that time no Bible 
could be circulated in Naples. The priests afifirmed 
that the safety of the Church would be endangered if 
the people were in possession of the Scriptures. The 
same prohibition applied to religious books and tracts. 
Darkness, despotism, superstition, and irreligion pre- 
vailed everywhere. Mr. Lushington and the Ameri- 
can Consul accompanied him, however, to the " Al- 
bergo de Poveri," which contained two thousand four 
hundred persons, near half of these being girls and 
boys. Here he had religious meetings. 

By appointment he waited on the Prime Minister, 
the Chevalier de Medici, to whom he had an introduc- 
tion from Sir Thomas Maitland. We return here, 
therefore, to Mr. Grellet's Journal. 



IN SOUTHERN ITALY. 179 

" I found In the antechamber a great number of 
persons of all ranks, waiting to have an audience with 
him ; they surveyed me closely, whispering to one 
another what kind of being I might be, thus to appear 
with my hat on. I was not left long among them; 
for it appears that the Chevalier had given orders to 
his attendants to admit me into his private cabinet as 
soon as I came ; he made me sit by him, and proceeded 
to inquire into the nature of the engagements I had 
had in the different nations where I had travelled; 
then he was very particular in his inquiries into various 
of our Christian principles and practices. He offered 
to give me orders for admittance to all their prisons, 
or any other place I might wish to visit, requesting 
only that I would impart to him what I might see, to 
which he could possibly apply some remedy. I made 
several attempts to withdraw, knowing that many 
persons were in waiting; but he was not ready to let 
me go till we had been above an hour together, and 
then he accompanied me through the antechamber, 
where so many were waiting, to the farther door ; they 
gazed at me, whilst they bowed very low to the Cheva- 
lier, as we passed on. 

" In the afternoon I was with the Abbe Mastroti ; 
several noblemen were present, also a young prince 
whom I saw yesterday. I felt for a while much de- 
jected; a heavy weight was upon my mind, and I did 
not see how I could throw it off before such a company, 
who appeared to be of the great and wise of this world ; 
but I thought that if I truly wished to be myself one 
of the wise in the Divine sight, I must first become a 



180 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

fool, yea, be willing to be accounted so by others. I 
proclaimed to them the day of the Lord, which shall 
burn as an oven, etc-, etc. ; I entreated them to receive 
Him in the way of His coming, and be of those whose 
sins go beforehand to judgment, and not of those 
whose sins follow after ; not to trust in the doctrine of 
a purgatory, but rather deeply to consider the descrip- 
tion given by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself of what 
follows after death, as set forth in the parable of Dives 
and Lazarus; the rich man, not in purgatory— but in 
hell — lifted up his eyes and saw Lazarus in Abraham's 
bosom, etc., etc. The Lord's truth was exalted among 
them, and His power had the dominion. 

"In the evening I went to the Prince Caidito's. I 
feel deeply with him, in his desire for the moral and 
virtuous education of the youth among the mass of 
the people ; I placed in his hands a copy of the 
' Scripture Lessons,' which dear Allen and I prepared 
in Russia. I found with the Prince eight other noble- 
men, who also manifested great interest in the subject ; 
they were inquisitive as to several branches of our 
Christian principle and testimonies ; this gave me an 
opportunity to set before them what the church of 
Christ is ; the worship which His servants are to offer 
to Him who is the Head of His church, which is a 
pure church ; this I contrasted with the Church of 
Rome, the worship of images introduced therein, the 
great impurity of so many of its members, particularly 
of the priests and monks. They acknowledged the 
correctness of these representations. On returning to 
my lodgings I found a letter from the Chevalier de 



i:^ so UTHERN ITAL T. 1 81 

Medici, inclosing orders for my admittance to the 
various prisons, etc. 

"21st. Accompanied by Bonaprianola, I began the 
very painful work of visiting the receptacles of vice 
and crime. I went to-day through the two prisons for 
women, a large one for men, and a hospital for their 
sick. This service took me from nine a. m. till four 
p. m. But my bodily fatigue is small compared with 
the anguish of mind I have endured. I do not re- 
member that, in any day of my life, I have been with 
so many fellow-beings so totally depraved and hardened. 
Cages of very unclean birds, indeed, I have been in. 
Many of the inmates, of both sexes, and even children, 
have committed atrocious crimes. I saw fifteen in one 
cell who are condemned to death. Their crimes are 
of the deepest dye, and they do not show the least 
sense of their situation. My attempt to represent to 
them the awful doom that awaits them shortly, unless 
by sincere repentance they seek for repentance and 
forgiveness through Him who is the only Saviour of 
sinners, appeared to have no more effect than the 
dropping of water on the flinty rock. Some boys 
who are there, at the early age of eleven years, have 
perpetrated several murders. I endeavored to turn 
the inmates of these prisons * from darkness to light, 
and from sin and Satan to God ' ; but I do not know 
that a single individual, out of several thousands I 
have been with this day, has given the least sign of 
sorrow for his evil deeds. 

''22nd. To-day I visited the foundling hospital, 
which is a very large establishment. The mortality 



Ui STEPUEN GRELLET. 

among the children admitted here is not as great as in 
similar places in Russia. About eighty nuns have the 
principal charge of it. In one part there are about 
four hundred girls, most of whom have attained the 
age of young women. It is a kind of convent. As I 
was going through a long corridor, accompanied by 
several of the nuns and priests attached to this exten- 
sive institution, we passed the door of their chapel, 
which was open. I saw the girls, with several nuns, 
on their knees before a large Madonna, or representa- 
tion, of the Virgin Mary, very richly and finely dressed. 
Wax candles were burning before it. They were 
singing to the image, but at the same time their faces 
were toward us, laughing. My soul was sorrowful on 
-beholding them, and their superstition and idolatry. 
The chief of the priests who were with me asked if I 
did not wish to go into the church to see the girls at 
their devotions. I told him I should like to do so if it 
were proper; I felt a strong inclination [to go in, but, 
as from religious principle I do not uncover my head 
in any place as if it was holy ground, I was unwilling 
to give offence to any one by going in. The nuns 
said, nobody here would be offended at it. The priests 
also said : * We have on our heads our cassocks ; 
your hat is to you no more than these are to us, es- 
pecially as it is from religious principle that you act.' 
Then I told them I would go in, on condition that, if 
I apprehended it was required of me by the Lord to 
communicate anything to the young women thus as- 
sembled, he, the chief priest, who spoke good French, 
would interpret for me. He very readily agreed to do 



IN SOUTHERN ITALY. l8S 

So. We all went in. Besides the girls, most of the 
nuns were in the church surrounding their great 
Madonna. When they had concluded singing their 
hymn, I told them how greatly my heart had been 
pained, as I passed by, on seemg the lightness of their 
conduct whilst engaged in what they call a devotional 
act; that I could not however be surprised at it, if 
they truly looked on that image before them as what 
it really is, — nothing but a piece of wood, carved by 
man's device, which can neither hear, nor see, neither 
do good nor evil to any; our devotion, I said, is to be 
to Him who sees the secret of our hearts, hears not 
our words only, but knows our every thought; from 
Him we have everything to fear if we do not serve, 
obey, and honour Him ; and the richest blessings to 
hope for if we love, fear, and serve Him : the worship 
acceptable to Him is to be performed in spirit and in 
truth, from the very heart ; this is the temple in which 
He is to be found, and in which He revealeth Himself. 
Here, at noonday, they have lighted tapers, which 
cannot enable them to discover the sinfulness of the 
heart ; but the light of Christ, which enlightens every 
man that cometh into the world, and by which every- 
thing with which He has a controversy is made mani- 
fest, showeth us our sins, that we may look upon Him 
whom by our sins we have pierced : He is the Saviour 
of all those that come to Him in faith and true repent- 
ance. Then I proceeded to proclaim to them the Lord 
Jesus Christ as the only Saviour of sinners, the only 
hope of salvation, the way, the truth, and the life, 
without whom no man can come to God the Father; 



184 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

all that pretend to enter by any other way than by 
Him are accounted as thieves and robbers. The priest 
interpreted faithfully into Italian, of which I could 
judge. The nuns and the other priests said several 
times, ' This is the truth,' or ' It is so.' The counte- 
nances of the girls had much altered ; they hung down 
their heads, and tears flowed from some of their eyes. 
Thus did my blessed Master enable His poor servant, 
in a Popish church, assisted by priests, to bear testi- 
mony to His blessed truth, and against the superstitious 
worship that these poor girls were offering to a carved 
piece of wood. After we came out, some more of the 
nuns collected about us, and in answering some of 
their questions I further unfolded to them what ac- 
ceptable worship to God consists in, and also what is 
the only hope of salvation. No man can save his 
brother, or give to God a ransom for his soul ; that, 
therefore, it is great presumption for any to attempt to 
take upon themselves to pronounce absolution from 
sin on a sinner. After opportunities of this sort I 
sometimes marvel that they do not lay their hands 
upon me ; but here, on the contrary, they parted from 
me in tenderness, and expressions of their satisfaction 
with my visit. Surely this is the Lord's doing ; holy 
and reverend is His name ! 

" In the afternoon I went to the prisons of the galley- 
slaves. They are dismal places indeed. The stone 
arches and the walls are black and sooty ; for they 
have sometimes a little fire in the prison, which is very 
damp, and as there is no chimney, the walls, that have 
not been swept for many years, have a dismal appear- 



m so UTHERN ITAL Y. 1 85 

ance. The water they drink is drawn from a well in 
the prison. What they spill of it, and the rain that 
comes in through the iron gratings, causes the mud to 
be shoe deep. They are so crowded that when they 
lie down on the planks placed over their benches they 
completely cover the whole surface ; and all cannot be 
accommodated. Many are obliged to place their planks 
on the mud, under the others. They are chained by 
the leg, two and two, so that their position is very un- 
comfortable. Many of them have thus been con- 
fined several years. Some young men, chained to 
older ones, were brought to that prison when they were 
only twelve years of age ! In no country have I seen 
so many youthful criminals. The only yard to which 
some of them may resort for a few moments is but 
twenty feet square. I found some tenderness of spirit 
among a few of the prisoners. There are about six 
thousand. My feelings were overpowered ; the foul- 
ness of the air also greatly affected me. But if, by 
my suffering, I can open a way for some relief to 
them, it will administer consolation to my sorrow. 
Some of these poor people seemed as if they could 
not believe their own ears, when I imparted to them 
the encouragements which the gospel holds out to 
penitent sinners : that although their sins were as scar- 
let, or of a crimson dye, yet the Lord, in His love and 
mercy, could make them as snow or wool. 

" I met at the Count Stackelberg's the Russian min- 
ister and several Prussian and Russian noblemen ; 
some of these I had been with in Russia ; the Lord 
made way once more to proclaim among them the un- 



186 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

searchable riches of His love through Jesus Christ, 
and to entreat them not to be hearers only of the glad 
tidings of the gospel, but so to believe as to obey. 

" 23rd. I was a third time with the Chevalier de 
Medici. I had sent him a statement of some of my 
observations, particularly among the insane, and in 
some of the prisons ; and I have now laid before him 
the situation of the galley slaves. He took such an 
interest in what I stated in my former report, and his 
feelings were so touched, that attention was im- 
mediately given to it ; some places have already been 
cleansed, ventilators are opened, boys are removed 
from the other prisoners, their irons are changed for 
lighter ones, etc., etc. And now he appears disposed, 
with equal promptitude, to have a complete change 
made in the prisons of the galley slaves, and at once 
to have the boys removed elsewhere. Should my 
deep sufferings in these visits have no other effect 
than thus to mitigate the bodily tortures under which 
some of these, my fellow-beings, have suffered for 
years, I am richly repaid ; may it not be for one of 
these ends that the Lord is opening a door of access 
for me to plead with men in -authority ? or that whilst 
the hearts of some of these are tendered, under a 
sense of the Lord's mercies towards them, they may 
become disposed to acts of mercy towards others ? I 
hope also that some of the poor prisoners will find 
consolation in the Lord Jesus, whose mercies have 
been proclaimed to them. Bonaprianola, Prince Car- 
dito, and a number of others, appear so to feel for that 
class of men as to be willing to visit the prisoners 



Ix SOUTHERN Italy. 187 

henceforth, and to impart to th'^m moral and rehgious 
instruction. I particularly recommended to them the 
juvenile offenders. I had a precious meeting with 
these benevolent persons, together with a large com- 
pany of those with whom I had been previously in 
more select or public religious opportunities ; it was. a 
solemn parting meeting. 

"I feel now as if I must hasten to Rome; various 
objects, under other circumstances, might claim a few 
days of my time ; Vesuvius displays a grand sight ; 
in the day, thick columns of smoke rise up to a con- 
siderable height, at night they are blazing pillars ; at 
a short distance from here are excavations made into 
the streets of Herculaneum and Pompeii, long buried 
under beds of lava, on which vineyards are now 
planted; but, though as a man I should be greatly in- 
terested in visiting them, they are not the objects for 
which my great and blessed Master has sent me to 
these nations. With singleness of heart I must pro- 
secute the business to which He has called me. My 
bonds for Rome also feel so heavy, that I could not 
have any pleasure in those things which, were I dif- 
ferently circumstanced, would interest me so much. 
It has indeed been so with me for years past ; though 
in the course of my travels I am among, or pass near, 
objects of great curiosity, and I have from early life 
taken great interest in such things, yet the discipline 
under which the Lord has kept me, and the weight of 
the religious service to which He has called me. have 
been such that I have not felt at liberty to turn out of 



188 STEPHEN OREL LET. 

my way In travelling, or to tarry longer in any place, 
merely to gratify myself." 

It is astonishing how opportunities will offer them- 
selves to a man absorbed in one grand intention to 
help and bless men. It is also very instructive to ob- 
serve how a man in abiding fellowship with the 
compassionate God finds doors open for usefulness in 
a city where all avenues of Christian testimony ap- 
peared closed against him. Surely Christ fulfils His 
promise of being with His own servants to the end 
of the age, and while they seek nothing great for 
themselves. He preserves them in grave perils, exalts 
them by His guidance, and sheds His blessing on 
their words. 

" No service in itself is small, 

None great, though earth it fill ; 

But that is small that seeks its own, 

And great that seeks God's will. 

Then hold my hand, most gracious Lord^ 

Guide all my goings still ; 
And let this be my life's one aim, 

To do, or bear, Thy will," 



CHAPTER XIV. 

I:N' ROME. 

WHEN Mr. Grellet visited Rome, Pius VH. 
was in the last years of his pontificate. In 
1804 he had crowned Napoleon at Paris ; in 1809 he 
was a prisoner at Fontainebleau ; at the close of 18 19 
he had reached the advanced age of eighty. Stephen 
Grellet found the Pope's territory infested with 
banditti, robberies and murders of constant occurrence, 
and every few miles of the road presenting the 
horrible sight of men hanging in chains. 

On his arrival he presented his credentials to Car- 
dinal Consalvi, prime minister of the Pope. The 
cardinal gave him a private interview in his cabinet. 
Sitting down by his side he detained him an hour and 
a half He was in no wise offended when Mr. Grellet 
spoke freely of the superstitions he had witnessed in 
Italy, and when he bore witness that Jesus Christ the 
Saviour of men was the only Head of His church. 
"Before we parted," he writes, " he wished to know in 
what way he could serve me ; I told him that I should 
like to visit the prisons and public establishments, and 
should be obliged if he would procure me admittance 
to them. Having promised this, he took me by the 

(189) 



190 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

hand through the rows of persons on each side, wait- 
ing ia the ante-chamber, to the door of the court." 

The next morning he went to the Castle of St. 
Michael with his letter of introduction. "The gov- 
ernor of the castle sent for a young man to accompany 
me : from the first my heart inclined to this young 
man. He has been chastened by the loss of his wife 
within a few weeks, who, I am told, was a beautiful 
and virtuous young woman ; he speaks good French. 
He went with me to several prisons for the galley 
slaves, and to the secret prison ; here they have a 
complete system of espionage ; the cells are so con- 
structed that they succeed in becoming acquainted 
with what the prisoners say to one another. They 
have very high ceilings, in which there is an opening, 
which appears to be intended only for a ventilator, but 
here a man is stationed who can hear nearly every 
word spoken in the cell. They place in the same cell 
such as have been connected together in crimes, that 
they may be encouraged to converse with each other. 
The person whose business it is to hearken to what 
the prisoners say is particularly attentive to be at his 
station before the prisoners are taken out to be inter- 
rogated, and on their return also ; on which occasions 
they are often heard to agree on what they shall say, 
and to talk on what occurred during the interrogation, 
and thus they commit themselves. But the listener 
may often hear indistinctly, and by misrepresentation, 
though without evil intention, cause these men to be 
condemned on the plea that they have avowed their 
guilt. By their laws no man is condemned unless he 



IN ROME, 191- 

confesses himself guilty, and by this plan they think 
they obtain such an acknowledgment ; some years 
past a confession was extorted by the cruelty • of 
torture. I saw some prisoners confined there on ac- 
count of religion, but could not understand for what 
particulars ; my kind attendant is, however, very 
ready in interpreting for me whenever I request him, 
and during some communications I made through 
him in several cells, some of the prisoners were 
tender." 

For some days he was occupied in visiting the 
Roman prisons and hospitals. It was with great 
physical exhaustion he did this. His heart was filled 
with distress at the sufferings he daily witnessed. The 
rule of the priests was one of rigorous repression ; 
the reaction against this led to perpetual vice and 
crime; and these were followed by cruel imprison 
ments. It was an iron reign of terror, with only here 
and there a gleam of mercy. ** I visited," he observes, 
"two large hospitals called St. Spirito and St. Charles ; 
and a large poorhouse, where, besides aged people, 
there are four hundred boys and five hundred girls. 
I had several religious opportunities, in some of which 
sensibility was apparent. I was also in a prison where 
about one hundred and twenty brigands are confined. 
They, and their wives and children, were routed out 
of their habitations, and are intended to be settled in 
distant places. Some of them may be innocent. The 
tenderness manifested during the religious opportunity 
I had with them may perhaps induce me to entertain 
such a sentiment. I was pleased with a retreat for 



192 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

convalescent persons. They are sent here from the 
hospitals, where, for about two weeks previous to their 
final discharge, they have good nourishing food given 
them, that they may get strength to proceed in the 
necessary business of life. The meeting I had among 
them was a peculiarly tendering season. Adjoining 
to this is a spacious place for the reception of pilgrims 
travelling to various parts, even such as go to Jerusa- 
lem. Here they remain a longer or shorter time to 
rest, according to the length of the journey they have 
come, or have to go. The apartments for men and 
women are entirely separate. In each place are large 
marble basins, some for washing the feet only (for 
the pilgrims travel barefoot), others for baths, into 
which warm and cold water may be let in, to the lik- 
ing of the pilgrim. They have also good beds and 
food provided for them. It is very common for men 
and women of rank (priests, bishops or cardinals), at 
least once a year, to repair here and wash the feet of 
the travellers, also to serve them during their meals. 
They consider such acts as very meritorious. The 
eating-room is large and lofty. 

*^This has been another day of very close engage- 
ment and mental suffering. I visited a prison, said to 
be a place of correction for boys ; very imposing was 
the sight on my first entering, accompanied by several 
priests belonging to this establishment and others con- 
nected with it, as they were giving a glowing descrip- 
tion of the great reform that they were instrumental 
in effecting. The lofty apartment I was in is about 
two hundred feet in length, and forty in height. On 



IN ROME. 198 

both sides of this room were small chambers ; opposite 
to each door was a boy, cleanly dressed, with a spin 
ning wheel; all seemed industrious, and profound 
silence prevailed among them. It seemed to be a 
pleasant sight; but, casting my eyes downward, I ob- 
served that every boy had a chain at his ankle, 
allowing him to go only from his cell to his wheel ! 
Then I beheld several inclined blocks, with stocks to 
confine hands and feet, and knotted cords and whips 
near them. Inquiring the meaning of all this : *0h,' 
said the priests, * these are the places where they re- 
ceive their correction morning and evening, on their 
bare back.' * Is this,' I queried, * the method whereby 
you bring about such great reform among these boys ? 
You may indeed excite the angry passions in them,' 
by such doings, but you will never change their evil 
heart.' In another part I was with women and girls, 
towards whom similar treatment is used, to reform 
them from their vicious habits. My endeavors to 
plead with these priests, and to set before them the 
ways that a Christian spirit would dictate, and which, 
through the Lord's blessing, might prove efficacious 
to the recovery of these young persons, have, I fear, 
had very little place with them. 

" 29th. I had a suffering night, my mind was 
under great distress ; I feel at times as if I was among 
lions and serpents, and as if I was treading over scor- 
pions; and yet, amidst these feelings, it is laid upon 
me to try to visit the Inquisition, thus to go into the 
lion's den." 

A few days after these visits he sought another in- 



194 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

terview with Consalvl, and stated the result of his 
observations, and desired from him a permission to 
visit the Inquisition. The minister could not grant 
this, but promised his endeavors to obtain one. The 
following day his Journal records : — " I visited this 
day a large college, formerly kept by the Jesuits, now 
banished from here ; there are about six hundred 
students in it. There I was among many priests also ; 
when I began to speak some of the young men were 
somewhat rude, but very soon silence and seriousness 
spread over them. The Lord helped me to pro- 
claim the everlasting Truth among them. Then I 
went to another school for four hundred boys, where 
their teacher, a very feeling man, a priest, acted as my 
interpreter. My next visit Avas to a nunnery, which 
has a school for girls, where the Lord was also near, 
in enabling me to proclaim His holy name; the 
Superior of the nuns has felt the Lord's power, she 
has a pious mind. It is marvellous that, though these 
religious services bring me into contact with so many 
priests, monks and nuns, when they hear doctrines so 
new to them, which also strike at the root of popery, 
no one has yet made an objection ; but on my taking 
leave of them, they treat me with kindness ; some 
even say that they are persuaded that it is the love of 
Christ that constrains me to visit them. I had a sat^ 
isfactory visit from a young priest, a prince of Rome 
and Austria; his name is Charles Odescalchi, his 
uncle is nuncio in Spain. I thought, on seeing this 
young man, that there was something lovely in him; 
his mind was brought into great tenderness; I can 



m ROME. 195 

but have good hope of him. Three pious persons 
came in also to see me ; two of them are of the 
monks that I was with yesterday, one is a young 
man. I had a full opportunity with them ; I directed 
them to Christ and to His Spirit. The young monk 
was broken into tears. In many of these oppor- 
tunities I have to set before them in what true religion 
consists, and that it is not by works of righteousness 
that we may perform that we can be saved, but by 
faith only in the free grace of God, through our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who is the only Saviour of men. 

" 2nd. I was occupied very late last night in pre- 
paring the documents that Cardinal Consalvi wishes to 
have, relative to my visits to their public establish- 
ments. I apprehend it my duty to expose the 
various abuses that I have observed, and, in several 
instances, misapplication of money designed for acts 
of benevolence; I represent also the sufferings of 
many of the prisoners in small, dark, crowded rooms, 
and the heavy chains on them which are not removed 
from some of them till after death ; I saw some, greatly 
reduced by long illness, who nevertheless wore their 
heavy chains." 

From Cardinal Consalvi Mr. Grellet wished for an 
introduction to the Pope. The Cardinal asked him 
if it would not satisfy him to be introduced at court. 
Mr. Grellet replied that he was no courtier, nor desired 
anything further than to be with the Pontiff in private. 
Thence he went to Father Mirandi, the head of the 
Inquisition. Consalvi had desired that the chief in- 
quisitor would give every information respecting the 



196 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

manner in which the Inquisition was formerly con- 
ducted, and would open to the visitor every part of it. 
Mirandi sent his own secretary with Mr. Grellet, who 
thus describes his visit. 

" The Inquisition stands very near the Church of 
St. Peter. The entrance is in a spacious yard, in which 
nothing is in view but extensive and sumptuous build- 
ings, containing their very large library, paintings, etc. 
On the left hand is a door hardly to be noticed, which 
opens, through a very thick wall, into an open place, 
round which are buildings of three stories, with many 
cells ; the doors of all these open into passages front- 
ing the yard. These cells, or small prisons, are very 
strongly built; the walls are of great thickness, all 
arched over. Some were appropriated to men, others 
to women. There was no possibility for any of the 
inmates to see or communicate with each other. The 
prison where Molinos was confined was particularly 
pointed out. I visited also the prisons, or cellars 
underground, and was in the place where the Inquisi- 
tors sat and where tortures were inflicted on the poor 
sufferer; but everything bore marks that, for many 
years, these abodes of misery had not been at all 
frequented. As we went on I heard the secretary say 
something to my interpreter about the Secret Library; 
I therefore asked him to take me there. He took me 
to the large Public Library. I told him this was not 
what I wished to sec, but the secret one ; he hesitated, 
stating that it was a secret place, where there could 
be no admittance; that the priests themselves were 
not allowed to enter there. I told him that the orders 



m ROME, 197 

that had been read to him were to show me every- 
thing, that, if he decHned to show me this, I might 
also conclude that he kept other places concealed 
from me ; that therefore I could not contradict the re- 
ports I had heard, even in Rome, that the Inquisition 
was secretly conducted with the ancient rigor. On 
which he brought me into the Secret Library. It is a 
spacious place, shelved round up to the ceiling, and 
contains books, manuscripts and papers, condemned 
by the Inquisitors after they have read them. In the 
fore part of each book the objections to it are stated 
in general terms, or a particular page and even a line 
is referred to, dated and signed by the Inquisitor, so 
that I could at once know the nature of the objection 
to any book on which I laid my hands. The greater 
number of manuscripts appear to have been written 
in Ireland. Some of them contain very interesting 
matter, and evince that the writers were, in many 
particulars, learned in the school of Christ. I could 
have spent days in that place. There are writings 
in all the various modern and ancient languages, Eu- 
ropean, Asiatic, Arabic, Grecian, etc., etc., all arranged 
separately, in order. I carefully looked for Friends' 
books, but found none; there are m?.n/ Bibles In the 
several languages ; whole editions of some thousand 
volumes of the writings of Mollnos. After spending a 
long time in this place of much interest, the Secretary 
said, ' You must come and see my own habitation.' I 
thought he meant the chamber that he occupies ; but he 
brought me to spacious apartments where the archives 
of the Inquisition are kept, and where is the Secre- 



198 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

tairerie. Here are the records of the Inquisition for 
many centuries, to the present time. I looked in 
some of their books from the fifteenth century. They 
are kept as the books of a merchant's journal and 
ledger, so that looking in the ledger for any name, 
and turning thence to the various entries of the 
journal, a full statement is found, from the entrance 
of the poor sufferer into the Inquisition to the time 
of his release or death, and in what way it took place, 
by fire or other tortures, or by natural death. The 
kind of tortures he underwent at each examination is 
described, and also what confessions were extorted 
from him. All these books are alphabetically ar- 
ranged. By examining those of late date to the 
present day, I find that the statement given me by 
Father Miranda of the manner in which the Inquisi- 
tion is now conducted is entirely correct. I could 
have spent days in this place also ; but the examina- 
tion of some of the books of several centuries gave a 
pretty full view of the whole subject." 

It is very interestmg to find that many, wearied 
with the superstitions, sorrows and vices around them, 
were, through the ev^er-pervading presence of the 
pitying Spirit of God, inquiring the way of life, and, 
on finding that Mr. Grellet was in Rome, came to him 
privately, to express their loss of confidence in priests 
and in outward observances, and to ask what they 
must do to find real peace. Among others was a 
young Prince Odescalchi who had established a night 
retreat in Rome for every one who chose to come in 
the evening. " No question is asked who the in- 



IN ROME, r 199 

dividual is, where he comes from, nor if he was there 
before. There are separate buildings for the accom- 
modation of men and women ; in each place are 
spacious baths ; provision is also made for those who 
have cutaneous diseases, to be fumigated. They all 
repair to a place of worship, where the Prince ad 
dresses them on subjects calculated to impress senti- 
ments of morality and virtue. Those present, he 
says, are generally well known to be immoral and 
vicious characters ; preaching to them was not cus- 
tomary, till lately introduced by the Prince, who 
appears to feel deeply for this poor and wretched class 
of the community. They all come afterwards to the 
refectory, where supper is given them, and beds are 
provided for all. In the morning they have water to 
wash, and their breakfast before they disperse. Many 
of them return again in the evening, especially when 
the weather is stormy, or they have not been success- 
ful in begging to obtain sufficient to eat. Sometimes 
this establishment has four thousand inmates during 
the night. It was a well-meant institution, but the 
good intention has been much perverted; yet the 
pious labors of the young Prince may prove a blessing 
to some." 

" 9th. This morning I had a message from Cardinal 
Consalvi to call upon him before he went up to the 
Pope, which is at seven a. m. I went accordingly. 
He well knows the dissatisfaction of some of the car- 
dinals and others towards him, but says it may do 
good eventually, that for his part he is fully disposed 
to serve me in what he can here ; or, after my depar- 



200 STEPHEN GRELLEf. 

turc, whenever he can do it. He further said, that it 
is very proper that I should be with the Pope before 
I leave Rome, and requested me to wait for his return 
from his apartment, when he might tell me what time 
the Pope will receive me. I had, whilst waiting, an 
interesting time with Capacini, and other secretaries, 
etc. Their inquiries led me particularly to speak of 
the influences of the Divine Spirit, a gift freely dis- 
pensed of God, which man's wisdom, learning or 
power cannot obtain for himself; much less can he 
dispense it to others : by it only the deep things of 
God can be known ; by it acceptable worship is per- 
formed, qualification for the ministry of the gospel is 
received ; the apostles were, by this, rendered able 
ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter 
but of the spirit. This brought me to state that the 
popes, cardinals, bishops, etc., in their ordination of 
ministers or priests, cannot confer upon them spiritual 
gifts, neither have they themselves any in virtue of 
their stations ; but Christ Jesus, the Head of the 
Church, is the giver of spiritual gifts, and v/ith His 
Divine anointing He gives power; He alone can 
forgive sin, He only is the Saviour of men. They 
were all very serious whilst these and other sub- 
jects of vital importance were treated upon; that 
of the mass, confession, absolution, indulgences, etc.^ 
were also adverted to. The cardinal came down, 
and said the Pope would see me at twelve o'clock. 
He knew that the coiirrier by which I had taken 
my seat for Florence was to start at one o'clock ; 
but, said he, * take no thought about that ; the 



m ROME, 201 

courrier shall not go till you are ready;* he also 
said that Capacini would be here in time to wait 
on me upstairs, and that he had provided one of 
his friends, approved by the Pope, who would, if 
necessary, serve as interpreter, and moreover be a 
witness to correct any misrepresentation that envious 
spirits might attempt to make. I returned to the 
palace at the time designated. L'Abbe Capacini was 
waiting for me ; we went upstairs, through several 
apartments, in which were the military body-guard • 
for the popes are, as kings of Rome, both earthly 
princes and heads of the church. Thence we en- 
tered into the private apartments ; the hangings about 
the windows, coverings of the chairs, etc., were all 
of brown worsted, or silk of the same color; all 
very plain. In a large parlor were several priests ; 
among these, the one provided by Consalvi to go 
in with me to the Pope. One, dressed like a car- 
dinal, but who is the Pope's valet de chambre, opened 
the door of his cabinet, and said in Italian, ' The 
Quaker has come;' when the Pope said, 

'Let him come in;' on which the priest, who was to 
act as interpreter, led me in, no one else being present; 
ci.T I was entering the door, some one behind me gently, 
I ut quickly, took off my hat, and before I could look 
for it, the door Wc s quietly closed upon us three. The 
Pope is an old man ; very thin, of a mild, serious coun- 
tenance. The whole of his apartment is very plain. 
He was sitting before a table ; his dress was a long 
robe of fine white worsted, and a small cap of the same 
(the cardinals have it red) ; he had a few papers and 



202 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

books before him ; he rose from his seat when I came 
in, but as he is but'feeble he soon sat down again. He 
had read my reports to the cardinal respecting many of 
the visits I had made in Rome, to prisons, etc. ; he en- 
tered feehngly on some of these subjects, and intends to 
see that the treatment of prisoners and of the poor boys 
in the house of correction, and various other subjects 
that I have mentioned, should be attended to, so that 
Christian tenderness and care be exercised ; means, as 
he said, more likely to succeed to promote reform 
among them than harsh treatment. He reprobates the 
conduct of their missic^naries in Greece ; also the burn- 
ing of the Holy Scriptures by the priests and bishops 
in several places ; he acknowledges, like Consalvi, that 
it militates much against the promotion of true Chris- 
tianity, and is more likely further to darken the minds 
of the mass of the people than to enlighten them. On 
the subject of the Inquisition, he said, he was pleased 
I had seen for myself what great changes had been 
brought about in Rome, in this respect ; that it was 
a long time before he could have it effected ; that he 
has made many efforts to have similar alterations intro- 
duced into Spain and Portugal ; had succeeded in part 
to have the Inquisition in those nations conducted with 
less rigor, but was far from having yet obtained his 
wishes. 'Men,' he said, 'think that a Pope has pleni- 
tude of power in his hands, but they are much mistak- 
en ; my hands are greatly tied in many things ;' he, 
however, expressed his hope that the time was not far 
distant when Inquisitions everywhere will be totally 
done away. He assented to the sentiment that God 



IN ROME 203 

alone has a right to control the conscience of man, and 
that the weapons of a Christian should not be carnal 
but spiritual. The fruits of the Spirit being described, 
he said that to produce such and for the same end, spirit- 
ual weapons should be used. I represented to him 
what I had beheld in many places in Europe, and the 
West Indies, of the depravity and vices of many priests 
and monks, what a reproach they are to Christianity, 
and what corruption they are the means of spreading 
widely over the mass of the people. I then stated what 
is the sacred office of a minister of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, a priest of God : what the qualifications for that 
office should be, and who alone can bestow them. As 
I was speaking on these and other subjects connected 
therewith, the Pope said several times, on looking at 
the priest present, * These things are true' ; and the 
priest's answer was, ' They are so.' Other subjects were 
treated upon, as the kingdom of God, the government 
of Christ in His church, to whom alone the rule and do- 
minion belong ; that He is the only door, the only Sav- 
iour, and that those who attempt to enter in by any other 
door but Him are accounted as thieves and robbers. 
Finally, as I felt the love of Christ flowing in my heart 
towards him, I particularly addressed him ; I alluded 
to the various sufferings he underwent from the hands of 
Napoleon, the deliverance granted him from the Lord ; 
and queried whether his days were not lengthened out 
to enable him to glorify God, and exalt the name of the 
Lord our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, as the only Head of 
the church, the only Saviour, to whom alone every knee 
is to bow and every tongue is to confess ; that such a 



204 STEPIJEN GRELLET. 

confession from him, in his old age, would do more 
towards the advancement of Christ's kingdom and the 
promotion of His glory than the authority of all the 
popes, his predecessors, was ever able to do; more- 
over, that thereby his sun, now near setting, would go 
down with brightness, and his portion in eternity would 
be with the sanctified ones, in the joys of his salvation. 
The Pope, whilst I thus addressed him, kept his head 
inclined and appeared tender ; then rising from his seat, 
in a kind and respectful manner, he expressed a desire 
that 'the Lord would bless and protect me wherever I 
go;' on which I left him. 

" On returning to the other apartment, my hat was 
given me, and excuses were made for having taken it 
away, stating that, as this is done when our Friends 
appear before the king in England, they thought they 
could not do otherwise on the present occasion. They 
also said: 'The Pope must have been much pleased 
with your visit, for we have never known him give one 
half so much time to anybody in a private audience 
nor conversing with them, as he has done with you.' 
My soul magnifies the Lord, my strength and my 
help. The work is His, and the glory also ! May 
He bless the work of His own hands ! 

" The priest who was with me before the Pope was 
very tender, and has now taken leave of me in great 
affection. Consalvi met me as I came down from the 
Pope's apartment. He renewed the expression of his 
desire to serve me whenever he can; and, in Christian 
love, we took a solemn farewell of one another. 

" I came to my inn to prepare for my journey ; it 



IN ROME. 205 

was a considerable time after the hour at which the 
courrier usually sets off; but when I came to the post- 
house, I met one of the attendants of the cardinal, who 
told me that the courrier had orders to wait for me ; 
that therefore, T need not hurry myself I was, how- 
ever, ready to go." 

It was an altogether unprecedented event that a 
faithful witness for the simplicity and purity of Chris- 
tian faith and worship should have had this free ac- 
cess to the Vatican and other palaces of church dig- 
nitaries. His singleness of aim and purity of purpose, 
his disinterested devotedness and integrity in the 
discharge of an apprehended duty, made a deep im- 
pression. The poorest of the poor, the most wretched 
criminals in miserable cells, as well as princes, nobles, 
and priests, recognised the hallowed sway of his un- 
striving and holy influence. Opposition was, how- 
ever, awakened from less liberal cardinals and inferior 
officials. ■ It is probable that, had he remained much 
longer near the Vatican, his further progress would 
have been interrupted. No man is in the Divine order, 
who courts persecution. Providence must interpret 
God's will. 

Travelling night and day, he arrived at Florence on 
the I ith of December, 1819. His mission in that city 
of beauty, and afterwards in Leghorn, Venice. Verona, 
and other Italian cities, was one of mercy. 

And here again let it be noted that if Stephen Grellet 
visited in palaces, and had access to distinguished po 
tentates in an altogether unexampled manner, his main 
work was among sufferers. Let us note those great 



206 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

words of the prophet concerning the Messiah : " He 
shall cause judgment to go forth in truth; He shall 
not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment 
in the earth. " The one prevailing wrong in the earth 
through all the ages has been injustice. In the days 
when Mr. Grellet travelled he was unable to follow his 
Lord in the promotion of judgment and justice, ex- 
cept through the great potentates of the empires he 
visited ; but of him it may be said, as Burke eloquently 
said of Howard, and at no period of his mission more 
than when in Central Italy, his object was not to study 
art or find pleasure in beauty, " but to dive into the 
depths of dungeons, to plunge into the infection of hos- 
pitals, to survey the mansions of sorrow and pain ; to 
take the gauge and dimensions of misery, depression, 
and contempt : to remember the forgotten, to attend to 
the neglected, to visit the forsaken, and to compare and 
collate the distresses of all men in all countries. " 



CHAPTER XV. 

THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 

IT has been observed that Mr. Grellet's Journal 
was written to afford information of the way in 
which God led him, to his relatives and to the So- 
ciety of Friends, who gave to him their entire and most 
grateful confidence. It is more the record of his out- 
ward than of his inner life. Nevertheless there are 
glimpses from time to time of what he terms " the ex- 
ercises of his soul " as he pursued his apostolic career. 
There would appear to have been prolonged seasons 
of humiliation, watchings, and prayers before God- 
When he speaks of being ''very low," and "very 
poor," the reference is clearly to his hours of self 
prostration. Sometimes, as he entered on important 
engagements, there were " wrestlings " with God like 
Jacob's at Peniel, as the patriarch pleaded that the re- 
proach and punishment of his great act of deception 
towards his father might' be wiped away, and whereby 
in the dawn of the morning, after that night agony, his 
name was changed from that of a " supplanter " to that 
of a " prince with God. " Sometimes, and more often, 
there were long and silent waitings on God : silent 
waitings, when the soul has not even its earnestness and 
fervor of prayer on which it can rely, but when hvitnciu 

(207) 



208 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

desires and self-will are annihilate-d, and God becomes 
all in all. No attitude is more fitted to the creature and 
more blessed than this. God is on the throne, man is in 
the dust. In such fellowship the consciousness of a 
man is opened in a way human philosophy cannot 
explain ; unused faculties of the spirit are then unsealed 
and directed; man is in sympathy with the Divine 
love, and is freely controlled by the Divine wisdom. 

There were two convictions perpetually actuating 
Mr. Grellet, and which constantly find utterance in his 
journal and letters. These were that '* the Lord had a 
seed precious in His sight in these European nations," 
and that he might do his *' share in the great work of 
refreshing that seed." In Bavaria he found that the 
persecutions which were instigated by the papal priests 
were sending the best persons out of the kingdom. 
He sought out these harassed ones ; he testified to rich 
and poor, to devout nobles and pious peasants, that 
''plausible ceremonies might be mere pretentions to 
religion." Not content therewith he records : 

" I went to the palace. I soon saw that my prayers 
had been heard ; the heart of the King was opened 
tov\^ards me. I had proceeded but a little way in plead- 
ing the cause of his persecuted subjects, on account of 
their conscientious scruples against the principles and 
doctrines of the Church of Rome, when the King 
said he increasingly felt how delicate, tender and 
important that subject was ; I encouraged him to take 
the precepts of Christ for his rule in the Goverment of 
his kingdom, and to seek for and act himself under the 
influence of His Spirit. I made particular allusion to 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 209 

perilous times in which he had lived, and the deliver- 
ance granted him of the Lord. I pressed earnestly 
upon him the necessity, now especially in his advanced 
life, to spend his remaining days in the fear of God, and 
in acts of piety, virtue, mercy and justice, desiring that 
he may himself obtain mercy and favor of God, and 
have a well grounded hope that, when he has to lay 
down his earthly crown, he may be prepared to have it 
exchanged for one everlastingly glorious. The King 
was tender. He took me in his arms with affection, 
and craved that the Lord may grant my heart's desire 
for him, and bless me wherever I go. 
' "After this I was with the Crown Prince. I encour- 
aged him to adhere closely to Christ ; to follow the 
light by which things reprovable in the sight of God 
are made manifest, for the commission of which the 
Spiiit of truth condemns us. I told him that it is by the 
Divine Spirit that power is given us to do, or cease from 
doing, what we cannot in our own will and strength. 
I left hirn in a tender state of mind. I then went 
a third time, to the Minister of Finance, and had a 
solemn parting opportunity with him and his family. I 
hope. that ihe King and his Ministers, and the Grown, 
Prince also; are strengthened to resist being any longer' 
made the tbols of the nuncio of the Pope, their bishops, 
etc>,.ifi the oppression of the pious people here. 

"This evening a large number met me once more 
at my lodgings. Among them was again the young 
Prince Oettingen. The Lord's power was sweetly 
felt to be over us. It was a time when solemn reso- 
lutions were formed. May they keep their covenants, 



210 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

unbroken. I have several messages from persons at 
court, who wish me to visit them ; but I beheve my 
work here, for the present, has come to an end. I 
commend them to God, and the word of His grace, 
which is very near them. He can do the work for 
them. All that the Lord's servants can do is to direct 
men to Christ. He alone is the Deliverer and Saviour." 

In the like spirit he went into the dominions of the 
King of Wurtemburg, and states : 

" On coming out of a prison I was met by the Prince 
Kodalesky, who had been in search of me at several 
places, to let me know that the King wished to see :ne 
this evening ; being then not far from the palace, I 
went there immediately, though I had not taken any 
refreshment since breakfast, and I felt much spent by 
the close engagements of the day. The King was 
alone, waiting for me ; he knew that I \vas in Russia 
last winter, and with his late wife's mother and her 
brother, the Emperor Alexander, a few days after they 
received the mournful tidings of her decease ; he con- 
tinues to feel deeply his great bereavement ; he held 
me by the hands, whilst large tears rolled down his 
cheeks. The best proof, said he, that he could give 
how much he honored his late queen, and how dear 
she was to him, was to endeavor to imitate her in her 
piety and virtue, and also to keep up all her establish- 
ments of benevolence on the same footinc^ that she had 
placed them. He also reverently spoke of the comfort 
the Lord extends to him, in the assurance that, through 
His mercy, his dear departed one has made a blessed 
exchange in passing from time to eternity, so that his 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 211 

great loss is her unspeakable gain. His mind was 
open to receive what I had to impart of the consola- 
tions of the gospel of Christ, and of the good hope 
that the Christian believer has, when he shall have 
fulfilled the days of his earthly probation, I endeav- 
ored to encourage him so to live and act as to honor 
the Lord during the residue of his life, and to promote 
by his example and precepts, the advancement of the 
kingdom of Christ, which stands in righteousness, 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost; that, whatever 
other kings may do, he may resolve to seek peace and 
pursue it; to be very tender of the consciences of all 
his subjects, and to rule over them in the fear and love 
of God. He was very tender, and fully acknowledged 
the truth of what I said to him. Before I left him, the 
King asked if I should not like to see his dear mother- 
less children. I told him that their grandmother, the 
Empress dowager, had requested me to do so. Then 
he appointed the time of my coming again to the 
palace, at seven to-morrow evening. 

" In the evening I went to the palace at the ap- 
pointed hour. I found the King again alone. We 
conversed for about half an hour on religious sub- 
jects, particularly on such as pertain to that salvation 
which is by the Lord Jesus Christ; also on the re- 
ligious and moral education of 'the youth in general. 
The King concludes to send some young men and 
women to London, to become qualified to introduce 
here schools on the plan of mutual instruction, and 
to have the ' Scripture Lessons ' used in them, having 
them printed in German. He again fully expressed 



212 STEPHEN OREL LET. 

his views respecting liberty of conscience, and has 
lately acted accordingly. A body of persons had 
separated, on religious grounds, from the Lutheran 
Church, and built a meeting house at Kornthal. Wil- 
liam Hoffmann, a member of the Legislative Body, is 
one of the principal men in the separation. The clergy 
in a body waited upon the King to request him to dis- 
• miss William Hoffmann from his public office, thereby 
to manifest his disapprobation of his conduct. He 
told them that he could not do any such thing, that 
he should not interfere with any of his subjects on 
account of their religious or conscientious views. I 
told the King that I had heard of those persons ; that 
some spoke much in their favor, others against them ; 
and that I had it under consideration to go and see 
them the next day. The King encouraged me to go, 
and to judge for myself. He then asked me to ac- 
company him upstairs to the nursery. We passed 
through a long range of apartments, all richly 
furnished. 1 could not refrain from saying, * How 
many unnecessary wants we make to ourselves !' We 
came at last to the children's apartments, — the two 
little princesses by his late queen, and her two sons 
by the Duke of Oldenburg. Mary, the eldest of the 
princesses, is only three years old, and yet speaks 
good English, French * and German; her sister is 
only eighteen months old. The King, on presenting 
them to me, was bathed in tears. On our return from 
the nursery, he took me through the apartments that 
the Queen used to occupy. I felt the love of the 
blessed Redeemer towards him, and endeavored Xq 



TBIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 2l3 

encourage him in a faithful adherence t6 the dictates 
of the Divine Spirit, and day by day to wait upon the 
Lord, that he may receive renewed strength to perform 
the vows that he had made in the days of his distress. 
He would follow me to the outer door of the palace, 
and, on parting, desired to continue to have a place 
in my remembrance and prayers, and that if at any 
time he could serve me I would let him know. This 
is a time of gracious visitation to his soul. May the 
Lord prosper His work with him ! 
•■ '-^I am greatly bowed down before the Lord whilst 
contemplating His power, love and mercy. I behold 
the efficacy of it in poorhouses and in palaces, 
among all classes of men of every nation or religious 
denomination. The works of the Lord in every part 
of His dominion proclaim His gracious and power- 
ful name." 

Thus he went on to Switzerland. 

"I visited several serious families, and had some 
religious service with them." 

" I was in several families with whom I had religious 
opportunities. I had also two meetings : one at the 
venerable aged Antistes Hess's." 

"Geneva, 5th. I was on the road some hours be- 
fore daylight this morning. On arriving here I was 
greatly comforted by meeting with my beloved friend, 
William Allen ; he could not obtain a passage from 
Malta for France, which induced him to come by 
land from Italy on his way to Paris and London ; he 
has recovered his health. It is cause of much grati- 
tude that we thus meet again. Now we are permitted 



214 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

to enjoy very sweetly the preciousness of fellowship 
in our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ, and had a 
refreshing and consoling time together in prostration 
of soul before Him. 

" 6th. We visited together several pious persons. 
In the evening we went to pastor Moulinier's, where 
we had appointed a meeting. We have felt very 
tenderly for him and pastor Demalleyer ; they have 
to endure much from several of the clergy in this 
place." 

Completing such engagements among the Swiss, 
and warning faithfully against the Socinianism every- 
where seeking to undermine faith in the Divine 
Redeemer, Stephen Grellet entered France once 
more. Xhe same object was still laid on his heart, 
as he travelled through his "native land. In every 
place to which he came, with beautiful brotherliness 
and tenderness he sought and strengthened faithful 
disciples. Among other places he again visited 
Brives, and writes : 

"Brives, Third Month 3th 1820. I am greatly 
comforted in my beloved aged mother, now above 
eighty years old. Her mind is clear, and she is 
green in the Divine life. The Lord Jesus is truly 
precious to her. I have had some tendering seasons 
with her and my other near relatives. Some of them 
now see beyond the priests, and their prescribed forms 
and ceremonies in religion. 

" 6th. I had some satisfactory meetings with the 
persons I visited when here before, and especially 
with the dear nuns. 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 2l5 

" Limoges, 8th. I arrived here yesterday morning. 
My parting with my beloved mother was truly solemn. 
It may probably be a final separation here on earth. 
On bended knees, my soul was very reverently 
prostrated before the Lord, and I was engaged in 
putting up my supplications unto Him for her, when, 
bathed with tears, she also kneeled down by me. 

" My distress for this nation, the land of my na- 
tivity, is also great. I see blackness hanging over 
them. The Lord will overturn, till He comes and 
reigns, whose only right it is. Since coming here, I 
have had several religious opportunities in the families 
of such as I mingled with heretofore in religious fel- 
lowship, and some meetings of a more public nature. 
I was also with several of the nuns ; two of whom 
are my cousins, who retain their religious tenderness. 

"Paris, 14. I entered this great city with a heavy 
heart. Darkness and impiety prevail to a lamentable 
extent. But the Lord has a remnant even here, both 
among the Roman Catholics and Protestants, who are 
as a little salt among them. 

In the same spirit he came over to England, whither 
William Allen had preceded him. Let it be noticed, 
he never assumed any superior knowledge or insight 
into the gospel of love. The language of the apostle, 
to Christians at Rome, was his to Christians here: "I 
long to see you that I may impart unto you some 
spiritual gift, to the end you may be established ; that 
is [drawing back any supposed air of superiority], 
that I may be comforted together with you by the 
mutual faith both of you and me." He tells us in, 



216 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

one place what his messapfe to such was. " I am often 
reminded," he says, "of the language of Paul: 
* Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel 
which I preached unto you ; by which also ye are 
saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto 
you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I de- 
livered unto you. first of all that which I also received, 
how that Christ died for our sins, according to the 
Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose 
again the third day according to the Scriptures.' " 

It would however be a mistake to suppose that his 
preaching was merely elementary. Dr. C. van Ren- 
selaer, the eminent Presbyterian minister of Burling- 
ton, New Jersey, where Mr. Grellet had his home, 
as well as a newspaper of that place, thus spoke 
of him : 

. " His gospel preaching was of a character rarely 
equalled, and probably nowhere surpassed. Its chief 
characteristic was its wonderful vitality. Perfectly 
free from every trace of egotism, he preached 'Jesus 
Christ, and Him crucified.' The sufferings of his 
Lord for the sake of sinful man deeply and abidingly 
affected his soul. His sermons manifested an extra- 
ordinary originality, scope of thought, and spiritual 
wealth. With demonstration of the Spirit, and with 
power, he illustrated his subjects with passages brought 
from various parts of the sacred volume, and which 
the hearer found presented in a light in which he 
never saw them before. Holding all mankind as his 
brethren, his public ministry and prayers evinced his 
large-minded sympathy with the whole human race, 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 21 7 

and his deep interest in the movements among the 
nations." 

Evidences are also furnished of that compassionate- 
ness and power to enter into the feelings of others 
which are the indispensable elements of effective 
preaching. "A heart of larger sympathy," says one, 
" I have never known, or one more ready to compre- 
hend 'and minister unto afflictions which were care- 
fully concealed. Whatever was the sorrow of others, 
.it was a /r^j"^;?/ sorrow to him. The irreligious were 
deeply impressed by the unmistakable halo of good 
to be felt about him. His was the gentle, kindly and 
true heart of one who was carefully following Christ." 

The wonderful ministry he once more conducted 
through these British isles covered a wide area. The 
dawn of the great evangelical revival in England was 
now beginning, and the quiet power which accom- 
panied Stephen Grellet must have signally contributed 
to the result. He was at this time in the fulness of 
his manhood and wisdom. What Gessner says of 
him a few years later must have been also true of this 
period. " His noble, simple, yet dignified bearing, 
and his apostolic appearance made a strong impres- 
sion upon all." He attended in the north and east of 
London meetings of Friends, and says, " The Lord 
very graciously refreshed us together." In West- 
minster he met the nobility of the west end, and 
simply records, " It was a quiet good meeting." In 
Yorkshire he speaks of meetings which *' were crowned 
by the Divine presence." In Ireland he writes of 
younger members of the society who had been es- 



218 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

tranged from the Christian simplicity of evangelical 
truth, and were " again brought under the baptizing 
power of it." In Bristol he refers to meetings when 
"the Lord's power rose into dominion." Thus he 
ministered through these isles with that quiet but 
irresistible efficiency which marks the best revivals of 
religion. God's greatest forces in the universe are very 
silent ones. 

Nor were instances wanting of that " discerning of 
spirits " which continually attended his ministrations. 
He writes of a visit to a Moravian establishment, 
when the lady at the head " gave me such a welcome 
as I could not at first understand, not recollecting to 
have seen her before, but I found that she had been 
at the head of the Moravian establishment in Dublin 
when I visited it. In the course of my religious com- 
munication at that time I particularly addressed a 
young woman, warning her against yielding to the 
strong temptation which was assailing her ; for if she 
did, anguish and misery would be the result ; but if 
she sought the Lord for help to resist it, He would 
be her saving strength, and would greatly bless her 
succeeding days. I knew nothing concerning the 
young woman, but I could not help thinking my ad 
dress to her a singular one. Now I am informed that 
a young nobleman had found means of obtaining 
access to her, and under fair pretences of strong affec 
tion, and promise to marry her, had nearly persuaded 
her to elope with him. This had come to the knowl- 
edge of my informant a very short time before I was 
there. As soon as I went away the young woman 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 219 

came to her, bitterly reproaching her for telHng me 
the circumstances ; but she satisfied her fully that she 
had not been with me, except in the presence of them 
all, and that nobody could have told me about it, 
since no other person was in the secret; she must 
therefore consider it as a particular interposition of 
the Lx)rd to induce her to flee from temptation, and 
to escape the ruin that threatened her. The young 
woman resolved, by the Lord's help, to do so ; she 
was enabled to resist, and soon after heard that he 
who had made such fair promises to her was a profli- 
gate man." 

From many other like instances we extract the 
following : 

"At Saffron Walden, in the course of his ministry, 
he felt drawn to speak on the evils of infidelity, when 
a sceptic who was present was brought under such 
strong convictions under the Lord's power that he 
wept aloud." 

In Switzerland '* a considerable number of serious 
persons had met at pastor Demalleyer's house. After 
some instructive conversation, a time of silence en- 
sued. The whole company seemed impressed with 
the solemnity of it. It was some time before anything 
was said. Stephen Grellet then addressed the com- 
pany in a very edifying manner. Whilst he was 
speaking, a gentleman who was but slightly known 
to the family, and had never before attended the 
little meetings occasionally held at their house, en- 
tered the room and took his seat by the door 
without interrupting the stillness, and, it was thought, 



22b STEPHEN' GRELLET. 

unobserved by the speaker. For a while there was 
no change in the tenor of his discourse, but towards 
the conclusion he was led to address himself, with 
•increased solemnity to an individual whom he de- 
scribed as being in the greatest danger of commit- 
ting suicide. After a solemn warning against the 
fearful sin and its awful consequences, the forgiving 
mercy of God, the bountiful provisions and the en- 
treaties and promises of the gospel of Christ, and 
the all-sufficiency of the help of the Holy Spirit, 
even for the most destitute and sinful, were dwelt 
upon in such a manner that all present were deeply 
affecte<i, wondering at the same time why they 
should be thus addressed. But from that time it 
■was remarked that the gentleman who had unexpect- 
edly come into the room whilst Mr. Grellet was speak- 
ing became more serious, and frequently attended the 
evening services which continued to be held by the 
little company of pious persons with whom he had 
mingled. It was not however till many years after 
that the gentleman informed pastor Demalleyer that 
on the evening of the meeting he had left his own 
house, under the pressure of great trials, with the full 
determination to throw himself into the lake. On his 
way to it an involuntary impulse caused him to take 
a less direct course, which brought him to the house 
of the pastor. He entered it, he scarcely knew why, 
and, through the Divine blessing, it proved the means 
of his deliverance." 

In the south of France, while addressing a meet- 
ing, he was impelled to utter a warning to turn from 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 221 

rash purposes, and, after the example of the prodigal 
son, to return to the heavenly Father. He was : 
astonished that in a place where comfort and encourage- ^ 
ment seemed needed he should have been constrained ; 
to bear such a testimony; but he was afterwards.- 
more surprised to find that a son of the devoted and 
samtly Oberlin had unexpectedly entered the meetn 
ini^. " He was in the practice of frequenting un.",; 
profitable company ; he had concluded to go thati 
very night to Strasburg to enlist as a soldier. Hear^; 
ing of the meeting, curiosity brought him there. Th6l 
word preached sank deep into his heart ; the Spirit 
of Truth, the faithful Witness, performed His office: 
in him; his purposes were changed, and he speilt 
the night in retirement and prostration of soul before- 
God; so that it might be said of him as of Saul, 
after the Lord had appeared to him in the way,- * Be- 
hold he prayeth.' " Thus the son of Oberlin was • 
kept back from a course of ruin, arid a father's prayers 
were answered. 

After the meetings in Great Britain above referred 
to, Mr. Grellet felt it to be his duty to return to the 
United States. His presence would be needed there. 
On the one hand religious troubles would sorely tax 
the fortitude of American Quakers; on the other, 
now that the cotton trade, in the general revival of 
commercial prosperity, would take a new start, the 
profits of African slavery would provoke a greed and 
inhvijnanity which would make the work of all. 
iVfeolltionists more imperatively urgent. The Journal 
rfco|:ds; 



222 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

" Lancaster. John Hustler kindly accompanied G. 
Stacey and myself to this place, by way of Settle. 
On the road my mind was engaged in retracing my 
steps and exercises among the nations I have lately 
visited ; the sore troubles that have attended me, the 
peculiarity of my religious engagements among the 
rich and the poor, military and clerical characters, in 
palaces and prisons, and how my blessed Lord and 
Master has been with me, His very poor servant, to 
uphold and help. I was greatly contrited before 
Him; truly did I say: 'Great and marvellous are 
Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are 
Thy ways, Thou King of saints ; who would not fear 
Thee ? who would not glorify Thy name ?' Should 
my life be prolonged to that of the antediluvians, the 
period thus lengthened would be too short to pro- 
claim the whole of the praise and the glory of my 
dear Redeemer. Amidst these feelings, however, I 
remember the Lord's disciples who were telling Him 
what great things they had been enabled to do through 
His name. He forewarned them of the sore trials 
that were Impending on them : ' But now I say unto 
you, let him that hath no sword sell his garment and 
buy one.' So a sense is given me of the sore tribula- 
tions that await me on my return to America. If my 
dear Lord and Master is rejected and traduced, I, who 
am but a very poor servant, if I keep my allegiance 
to Him, must not expect to escape my share of the 
afflictions of the gospel. My prayer is that the Lord 
would clothe me with His holy armor of light, 
strengthen my faith in Him, and preserve me in 



THIRD VISIT TO CENTRAL EUROPE. 223 

patient suffering with and for Him, even though all 
should forsake Him." 

It has been maintained of late that the absence of 
a high and consecrated life in these times is to be 
traced to vague and indefinite views of religious truth, 
and to the fact that the authority of theological sys- 
tems has ceased to sway this generation. This cannot 
be doubted. But the predominating cause is in one 
sentence ; Chritian persons have lost conscience as 
to the imperious necessity of communion with God 
in the daily reading of Scripture, and by means of 
private, closet prayer. Herein lay the sources of 
strength and wisdom in Stephen Grellet. As well 
expect nature to flourish without God's atmosphere, 
as for the soul of man to think and feel rightly WA^^n 
out of fellowship with God, 



CHAPTER XVI. 

FAITHFUL WITNESSING. 

ME GRELLET landed at New York August 
; th, 1820. He records: — "I met my be- 
loved Wife and daughter, who came two days since 
from Burlington, to await my arrival ; and they did 
not wait long. Our hearts overflowed with gratitude 
at our being permitted to meet again, after an absence 
of two years and two months, during which I have 
trav*elled about twenty-two thousand miles. Silent 
and veverent prostration of soul before the Lord was 
our only language to one another, for some time; 
then, on bended knees, and with a bowed spirit, thanks- 
giving, adoration and praise were offered to the Lord." 

The ensuing winter and spring were spent in the 
bosom of his own family, and he adds : " Our hearts 
are often bowed in much gratitude under a sense of 
our many favors, and we esteem it a great one to 
pass now so much time together." 

In 1822 he again entered upon an extensive visit 
to Friends in the United States and Canada. After 
this, early in 1824, the duty appeared to be laid 
upon him of a tour through the Southern and slave- 
holding States. The cruel usage of the slaves lay 
heavily on his heart. TLe yoke of slavery was most 

(224) 



in! 







FAITHFUL WITNESSING. 2/5 

oppressive at this time ; scarcely a gleam of hope 
cheered the heart of the few philanthropic men who 
were enduring bitter enmity from interested men in 
the North, and whose names were laden with the 
curses of the South. The attitude of the Southern 
States in favor of slavery was so pronounced, deter- 
mined and virulent as to produce hatred and insult 
against every man who witnessed against the evil. 
Into this dark region of bondage Stephen Grellet en- 
tered. He did so in no temper of angry denuncia- 
tion ; he writes : " I feel for the poor and oppressed 
descendants of Africa, and not less awfully for their 
oppressors. In this spirit he went through Virginia, 
thence into Ohio, and thence through the great valley 
of the Mississippi, as far as New Orleans. Wherever 
he went, into whatsoever State or city, this was his 
testimony, that " slavery and all kinds of oppression 
were contrary to the law of God, which is one not 
of selfish cruelty but of human love and mercy." He 
protested continually against State laws whereby 
slaves were liable to be imprisoned, and to receive 
twenty-five lashes if they attended religious meetings. 
He called this '^ wickedness," dind warned the men who 
"put such wicked laws in force." 

In public and private religious meetings he had 
numerous opportunities of bearing witness against 
slaveholding. He was again and again told that his 
mission would lead to a rising of the slaves ; but it 
was not so. A terrible time it was. Slaves on the 
burning plantation were driven with a cruelty the 
" dumb driven cattle " did not receive, and on the 



226 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

anction block were knocked down for infamous pur- 
poses. The marriage tie was violated, and the hearts 
of mothers and husbands wrung with anguish. At 
some times the slaves would fire on their oppressors; 
at others scores of them would hide away in swamps, 
amidst wet and starvation. Happily there were South- 
ern men who acknowledged that the system was the 
crime as well as the scourge of the land. But it was 
ever held to be remarkable that Stephen Grellet came 
alive out of the house of bondage. The writer of 
these words recalls with a shudder that once, be- 
cause in Leeds he had seconded a protest against 
slavery which had been proposed by Mr. Edward 
Baines, the long-faithful and honored friend of all that 
is free and noble, he received an extract from a South- 
ern paper full of awful curses.* 

It would be difficult to find a more impressive spec- 
tacle than that of Stephen Grellet for a whole year 
pursuing his lone journeys in these slaveholding 
States, sacrificing comforts and risking life in the in- 



* In a later year it is related that on one occasion an 
eloquent African, a freedman, was declaiming against South- 
ern slavery in a Northern city. But the iron had so entered 
into his soul, and the prospect of emancipation seemed so far 
off, as to make his address brimfull of despair. A negress 
was in the audience. She rose ; stood silent; her tall, magni- 
ficent figure arrested all eyes ; then, as the orator poured 
forth his hopeless lamentations, she stretched out her long 
arms, and raising her head and voice cried out, " Frederick 
Douglass, is God deadf" It was as the voice of a Hebrew pro- 
phetess, and brought back hope to the heart of the speaker. 
"Vengeance," says our English proverb, " has leaden feet 
but iron hands " Its approaches are slow, but it comes at last 
with crushing weight. 



FAITHFUL WITNESSING. 227 

terests of humanity. Amidst the hurry of human 
affairs the pioneers of the greatest amehorations are 
apt to be forgotten ; but let posterity at least be just 
to them. 

Other heavy solicitudes were to take possession of 
his mind, and to claim his attention. A serious divi- 
sion threatened the whole society of Friends. Their 
grand motto had been derived from their founder, 
George Fox : " We are nothing ; Christ is all." A 
true evangelical sentiment had been the salt of their 
community ; by the term " evangelical " is intended a 
rigid regard to scriptural truth and to its honest in- 
terpretation. The Quakers who at this time deviated 
from the traditional standards of the Friends pleaded 
indeed that they did abide by scriptural testimony. 
But it was held that it was one thing to give the full 
and legitimate force to the words of Christ and His 
apostles, and another to interpret them in a sense 
that could never have been dreamt of by devout and 
intelligent readers who were untrained in the jargon 
of so-called philosophical schools. The idea was 
held, by those who afterwards bec-ame the seceding 
party, that the evangelical system was a thing of the 
past and had become obsolete. The other side 
maintained that if the evangelical system conserved 
and maintained vital Christianity, it could never be 
obsolete ; that human nature in all ages remained the 
same, and that the value of a Divine revelation was 
in this, that it was a testimony which exactly corres- 
ponded with immutable facts and realities in the 
Divine modes of being and operation. It was strenu- 



228 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

ously maintained therefore that a professed de- 
velopment of Scriptural truth in the sense of a 
philosophical and non natural interpretation of it was 
in effect a denial of its authority. 

A Quaker named Elias Hicks made himself the 
leader of the party in opposition to the evangelical 
confessions of the Friends. There came a deplorable 
secession, into the history of which we cannot enter. 
Stephen Grellet stood firm, while many wavered 
around him. His attachment to Quakerism arose 
from his conviction that it was identical with pure 
and simple Christianity. This he avowed in all the 
meetings he attended, and his firmness was a strength 
to many. Time has justified his action, and it has 
been demonstrated that the noble and distino;uished 
Friends of later years derived their impulse and in- 
spiration from the candid, unaccommodating inter- 
pretation of those evangelical truths at that period 
assailed. 1 hese witnesses have not toned down gospel 
requirements to an apathetic indifference to the crimes 
and vices preying upon society, nor have they lowered 
and acc^^mmodated the spirituality of the New Testa- 
ment 1^ meet the conventional customs and pleasures 
of the world ; nor, again, have they allowed the pre- 
judices of a self-named rationalism to interpret scrip- 
tural truth in methods that adapted it to the ever 
shifting demands of a human philosophy. They have 
very painfully learnt, since those days, that departure 
from the 'Evangelical confessions meant, m not a itw 
cases, ar inclined plane which led ferther and farther 
from the inambiguous requirements of Divine revela- 



FAITHFUL WITNESSING. 229 

tion, until at length the place was taken in the ranks of 
unbelievers. They have learnt also, and the demon^ 
stration has been most valuable, that the purest lives 
and, during the last half century, the noblest efforts 
on behalf of freedom, of human rights, of the pro- 
gress of nations, of the improvement of society, and 
the salvation of the race, have mostly proceeded from 
men holding that evangelical faith on the side of 
which Mr. Grellet at the time of conflict and separa- 
tion was so decided. 



Ten years of his life were occupied in these and other 
labors. They brought to him, after times of trouble, 
deep balancings of joy. Years were these, from 1821 
to 1 83 1, of sowing, and in the history of America the 
most fruitful sowing the world has known since 
apostolic times. He saw the hard capsules of a Cal- 
vinistic interpretation dropping off the truths of the 
gospel testimony, and on all sides and among all 
churches men multiplying by thousands, whose con- 
fession of the Saviour's grace to men was like unto 
his own. It was therefore natural that his thoughts 
should be again turned to Europe. There also mighty 
changes were in progress. Youths who had grown 
up in the deluge of war that had swept over Eu- 
ropean kingdoms were now coming to the front as 
Christian confessors. Their faith and strength had 
been developed as they could not have been in a time 
of softness and prosperity. In the British isles the 
evangelical -v^itness was spreading all along the lines. 



230 STEPHEN GRELLET, 

In Conformist and Non-conformist churches preach- 
ing was intensely fervent, zeal was unbounded, and 
conversions of men to God were the mark of the 
epoch.* In France and Switzerland, under a reign 
of wider liberty, evangelical churches were being 
formed, and pastors like Vinet, Adolphe Monod and 
D'Aubigne were increasing. In Italy the old voice 
of the Waldensian loyalty was sounding from the 
valleys of Piedmont. In German universities 
scholars like Tholuck, Hengstenberg and Neander, 
whose learning and purity of life none could dis- 
pute, were courageously avowing the essential 
truths of vital religion. At such a time Stephen 
Grellet writes : 



* It is not easy to convey to this generation an adequate 
impression of the transcendent power, at that period, of the 
Evangelical pulpit in the established Churches of England 
and Scotland, and among Non-comformists. It was arousing, 
teaching, melting and stimulating to the last degree. Such 
preachers as Thomas Chalmers, the Hon. Baptist Noel, John 
Angell James, Robert Newton and Henry Melvill, (and these 
represented many more,) derived their pathos and moving 
force over the understandings and hearts of men from those 
distinctive evangelical truths which now in many places arc 
reckoned antiquated and worn out. Nor was there wanting 
an enforcement of the ethical side of Christianity. The effect 
that religion should have on the conduct of men and nations 
was powerfully proclaimed. Congregations would break up, 
not in a carping, finical and critical mood, but would go home 
to pray, and would go forth in the world new men. Such a 
time had its perils. Preachers are drawn into a popular move- 
ment who adopt its terms for the sake of its prestige, but who 
breathe not its spirit. Had it been otherwise, we should not 
have witnessed the reaction of later years. The restoration 
of faith can, however, come only from the same positive and 
unambiguous preaching of the teaching of Christ, and the 
great themes of apostolic testimony. 



FAITHFUL WITNESSING. 231 

"Third Month, 1831. My rehglous concern to 
cross once more the seas and to visit Friends in 
England and other nations on the continent of Eu- 
rope, in the love of the gospel of Christ, my Lord 
and Saviour, having ripened to clearness, with the 
evidence that now is the time for me to make the 
requisite preparation for engaging in so solemn and 
important a work, I have set my small affairs in 
order, and obtained certificates of the Christian sym- 
pathy and unity of my friends. My beloved wife 
on this occasion, as on all preceding ones, freely and 
with Christian cheerfulness resigns me to the Lord's 
service. She is uniformly a great encourager to me 
to act the part of a faithful servant of the best of 
Masters. We have several times parted, with the ap- 
parent prospect of never seeing each other again in 
this state of mutability, but the Lord, in whose hands 
is our life, has brought us together again. He may 
still do so if it be His good pleasure. Into His hands, 
and to His sovereign will and disposal, we commit 
ourselves and our beloved daughter, our only child." 

" Lord, speak to me, that I may speak 
In living echoes of Thy tone ; 
As Thou hast sought, so let me seek 
Thy erring children lost and lone. 

Oh use me, Lord, use even me, 

Just as Thou wilt, and when, and where ; 

Until Thy blessed face I see, 

Thy rest, Thy joy, Thy glory share.** 



CHAPTER XVII. 

FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE, 

MR. GRELLET was in his fifty-ninth year when 
he went forth as an ambassador for Christ 
to the nations, on his last, as it proved, his most ex- 
tensive missionary journey. One who had knowledge 
to justify the language writes : " He had now grown 
grey in the service of the Lord ; and the richness of 
his personal experience gave peculiar interest to this 
labor of love, and brightness to this work of faith. 
It was like distributing the well ripened fruit of his 
autumn life." He travelled through Great Britain, 
through extensive parts of Holland, through some of 
the minor States of Germany, through the dominions 
of Prussia, Saxony, Bohemia, Austria and Hungary, 
Bavaria, Wurtemberg, Switzerland, France, Spain and 
Piedmont. Men everywhere declared that their in- 
timacy with him was one of the " brightest episodes of 
their lives." At Dresden the Prince Regent well de- 
scribed the catholic nature of his mission when he 
said to him and William Allen, who accompanied him 
once more over a portion of this journey : " We know 
how the love of God and good will to men prompts 
you ; that you embrace men of every description, of 
every religious denomination, rich and poor ; that you 

(232) 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 233 

go among the most wretched in prisons and poor- 
houses, and come to some of us in our palaces." In 
these palaces of princes and in the mansions of states- 
men their united testimony, as we learn from their 
Journal, was that " sin, disobedience to the holy will 
of God, was the cause of all private and public 
misery;" and in the abodes of the poor that "Christ 
Jesus had come to put away and to deliver men from 
sin, and that to them that received Him He gave 
power to become the sons of God." This twofold 
declaration gave not a transient but permanent influ- 
ence to the labors of the two evangelists. Nothing 
indeed is more remarkable and noteworthy than this 
feature of Stephen Grellet's ministry. Like the true 
high priest of Israel he felt gently towards the ignor- 
ant and erring, and at the same time never justified 
the wicked. He saw that sin, which a lukewarm 
minister is apt to regard with apathy, is in God's 
view the cause of unutterable suffering in its effects 
from man to man, and of inconceivable woe in sunder- 
ing human relations to Jehovah. The emphatic words of 
Scripture in reference to the Christian teacher are, that 
he " turns many away from iniquity," and " turns many 
unto righteousness " (Mai. ii. 6, and Dan. xii. 3). On 
the other hand, in Stephen Grellet there was no sever- 
ity. The lowliness with which he himself lay before 
God made him like unto the true priest in another 
requirement. A descendant of Aaron could not on the 
day of atonement have observed the law which re- 
quired that he should stand and gaze on the red 
blood of a bullock of sin offering, and the burnt 



234 STEPHEN GRELLEf. 

offering of a ram, both for himself and his own trans- 
gressions, without deahng tenderly afterwards as he 
confessed and sacrificed for the sins of the people ; 
and Stephen Grellet teaches how we, who under the 
Christian dispensation are spared this anguish, should 
nevertheless go as sinners ourselves, redeemed by 
the Great Sacrifice, to plead with men for their sal- 
vation.* 

It being perfectly impossible in the limits of this 
manual to present the details of this extensive and 
laborious European journey, nothing more will be at- 
tempted than to offer fragmentary glimpses of its 
nature in extracts from the Journal. The order that 
will be followed will be that of the kingdoms visited, 
but it must not be forgotten that the extracts relate to 
labors for many weeks and even months in the re- 
spective nations visited. 

England. ** I had many meetings in the dales of 
the midland and northern counties, and among the 
colliers and miners. I feel deeply for that class of 
men; many are their privations and sufferings, as 
also are those of the poor weavers in the manufactur- 
ing districts. My travelling among the colliers was 



* In addition to the offering of his own sin offering, wash- 
ings and purifications for himself, it was required that seven 
days before the day of atonement the high priest should leave 
his house and family, and take up his abode in the Temple. 
Surely this retirement was not only for his own freedom from 
defilement, but freedom also from that spirit of routine, 
formality and unfeelingness, to which, above all men, eccle- 
siastics are liable. The seclusion would go to assist that 
" compassionateness " which was the high priest's main 
quahfication. (See Heb. v. 2.) 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE, 235 

attended with danger in many places ; for the men 
had * turned out,' as they call it, refusing to work 
unless their wages were advanced ; and they were 
under excitement, increased by the want of the ne- 
cessaries of life to support their families ; some of 
them were driven to acts of desperation, so as even 
to attack travellers on the road. We however passed 
on unmolested, and had some large meetings in those 
very districts, where the people behaved well. I en- 
deavored to impress upon them the fear of God and 
the love of the Saviour, and the duty of living under 
the influence of the peaceable spirit of the gospel of 
Christ." 

" We had several public meetings, and others 
among Friends generally, through Devonshire and 
Cornwall as far as Falmouth. Some of these meet- 
ings, held among the lead mines were very interesting. 
Vital religion has progressed among many of these 
people since my first visit to them. The education 
of the children has, by the Lord's blessing, contributed 
to the moral reform of the parents. Great broken- 
ness of spirit has sometimes appeared to extend over 
the large company collected. May the Lord bless 
His work among that people and everywhere. The 
dear Redeemer saith, * My Father worketh hitherto, 
and I work,' and it is a marvellous work." 

Rotterdam, i6th. " Early this morning we made a 
satisfactory visit to the Baron Makey, Director of the 
Post-office ; he is a spiritually minded man ; he be- 
lieves that the Spirit is one of the blessed gifts of the 
Redeemer ; therefore the more highly he values the 



2;i6 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

Gift the more also he loves and reverences the gracious 
Dispenser of it. We were afterwards with the Baron 
La Deboar, who is a useful and benevolent man. The 
two clergymen we were with yesterday, having heard 
that we were here, came to meet us again, bringing 
with them the clergyman of the Dutch Kirk : they 
seem to wish to be in our company, not for disputa- 
tion nor to enter into controversy, but to inquire into 
some of our Christian principles : we had an oppor- 
tunity of setting before them our views of the nature 
of pure Christianity, and the qualifications for a 
minister of Christ. We forwarded to the quarantine 
on the little island a parcel of Bibles and Testaments, 
in several languages, for the use of those who may 
yet come there. We also visited and had religious 
opportunities in their prison and schools ; in one of 
these for the poor there are about one thousand 
children. 

" We came to Amsterdam on the 1 8th, and visited 
the Infant School, supported out of the interest of the 
residue of the money proceeding from the share of 
John Warder in the prizes made during the war by a 
vessel in which he was concerned.* They have now 



"^' Before his removal from England, the late John Warderi, 
of Philadelphia, had a share in the ship Na?icy, which, with- 
out his knowledge or approval, was arme I by his partner 
who was not -a member of the Society of Friends. During 
the American war, Holland being one of the allies of the 
United States, the Nancy aided in the capture of a Dutch 
East Indiaman, on her homeward voyage to Amsterdam. 
From the nature of the cargo the prize turned out to be a 
rich one, and John Warder's share of the proceeds amounted 
to a considerable sum. To apply to his own use money so 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 237 

upwards of sixty children in that school. The build- 
ing purchased for the purpose is a convenient one, and 
the matron, under whose especial care it is placed, 
appears to act as a mother and a Christian towards 
those young children. Our testimony against war is 
exalted through this act of justice and benevolence. 
Many persons come to visit the establishment." 

"We went to Eidinghausen, a village where several 
persons that profess with us reside ; we visited them in 
their families, and had a meeting with them. The 
people there live, some might say, in ancient sim- 
plicity ; under the same roof are the dwelling house, 
the barn, the cow house, the stable for horses, and 
their pigs, also the places for other live stock, fowls, 
etc. The part occupied for the dwelling is at the 



obtained was felt to be inconsistent with a faithful support of 
the Christian testimony against all wars and fightings, and 
restitution of the property an obvious duty. But in the midst 
of international Hostilities it was no easy matter at once 
clearly to ascertain the parties justly entitled to it. Under these 
circumstances John Warder ultimately placed the amount he 
had received upon trust for effecting the restitution when 
practicable. Both before and after the termination of the 
war, efforts were made to find out the real owners of the 
properly, and, as far as possible, it was restored to them ; but 
some could never be traced. Being originally derived from 
Holland, it was finally thought most in accordance with strict 
justice to appropriate the unclaimed residue to Dutch pur- 
poses. The result was the esta,blishment and support of the 
infant school alluded to at Amsterdam, The citizens, appre- 
ciating its value and the character of its origin, have called it 
"Holland's Welfare," the name borne by the captured vessel, 
and by that name it is still recognized in their list cf public 
schools. A large number of children have been taught in the 
institution. It was the first of the kind in Holland, and now 
similar ones are very general in that kingdom. 



238 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

farther end of this large building, which has no 
chimney, so that the smoke makes its escape as it can 
from the sides or the roof, which is thatched with 
straw. We had a meeting in one of these places ; it 
was largely attended by the villagers. It was a novel 
sight to us ; we had on each side of us horses, cows, 
calves, sheep, etc.; but it seemed as if a total silence 
was spread over all these, as well as over the large 
company collected. I believe that during the whole 
time of the meeting, none of the lowing of the cattle 
the bleating of the sheep, nor other noise was heard, 
though before and after the meeting they were 
pretty loud. Some of the dear people appear to 
have been much sheltered from the corruption pre- 
vailing in the world, and also to have minds ac- 
quainted with the power of redeeming love. We 
were sweetly refreshed among them. Here reside 
persons who, for the maintenance of our Christian 
testimony against war and bloodshedding, have 
suffered grievously." 

" Came to Brunswick. Here I found, in the land- 
lord of the hotel at which we put up, a Frenchman, 
who came from the vicinity of Limoges, the place of 
my nativity, and who, like myself and others of the 
nobility, emigrated to Germany in the year 1 791. We 
were together in the same army ; he continued in it 
after I left. The division of the army he was in 
was first sixteen thousand men strong, but it Avas so 
recruited from time to time that he says they lost about 
fifty thousand men in that bloody war, and there was 
but a handful left at last He was delighted to .see 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 239 

me. He has a large family, and has made a hand- 
some estate. I endeavored to urge upon him the 
gratitude with which his mind should be clothed 
before the Lord, who, in such mercy and com- 
passion, has preserved his life to this day, even when 
he beheld thousands fall around him, and had also to 
contemplate the great religious insensibility that was 
manifested by many of his companions. This was 
such that, whilst their advanced posts were so near 
those of the French revolutionists that, though they 
could not see one another because of the darkness 
of the night, they could distinguish the sound o( 
voices and therefore spoke to one another only in a 
whisper, yet even then they were so intent on card 
playing that they did it by the aid of glow-worms. 
They held these in one hand and the cards in the 
other, now and then laying them aside to fire upon 
the enemy in the direction of the voices, whilst 
they were fired at in return ; though now and then 
some were killed, yet others would readily take 
their places, and continue the game ! O the cruelty, 
the depravity, and the wickedness that war brings with 
it ! it baffles all attempt at description." 

Prussia. " By appointment we visited this morning 
the Prince Wittgenstein ; he is the King's prime 
minister; he received us with kindness and openness. 
We imparted to him several subjects that have rested 
with weight on our minds since our coming to Prus- 
sia, which we wished to be brought before the King 
for his consideration, and which the Prince has a full 
opportunity of doing, as he is daily with the King. 



240 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

We met there General Boye, who was with us yester- 
day at the Major-General Rudloff's. From conscien- 
tious motives he has retired from a military life ; he 
accompanied us in a visit to the prisons and to the 
hospitals for the prisoners. In one of the prisons we 
met with about one hundred and fifty Jews, who com- 
posed a band of robbers, linked together, but scattered 
over various parts of this kingdom. The prisoners are 
numerous ; this is owing to the very slow process 
with which the laws are administered, which is a great 
injury. There are not any public executions; we are 
told that no life has been taken in this way since 1819, 
and they have no place abroad to which they can 
transport their convicts. 

" At the suggestion of the Prince Wittgenstein, we 
went to see Kohler, minister of the interior. The Prince 
said that he might be of service to us in promoting 
our views for the better treatment and accommodation 
of the prisoners, whom we had found crowded in 
small apartments, badly ventilated, so that the air is 
rendered very foul. We also thought that their ration 
of bread is too small, and the quality of it bad, so 
that their countenances bespoke their suffering condi- 
tion. We hope now that relief in these respects will 
be extended to them, and that by a more speedy ad- 
ministration of justice the number of those so confined 
will be considerably lessened. 

** Baron von Schilder, grand master of the court, 
accompanied us to the old palace, where the Crown 
Prince and the Princess Royal, his wife, reside. We 
were immediately introduced into her private apart- 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 241 

ments, where she received us, accompanied oy one of 
her attendant ladies only. She is the sister of the 
present King of Bavaria, and remembers me when, 
some years since, I visited him and her father, who 
was then living. She made some apology for desir- 
ing to see us, but wished to obtain correct information 
of our views respecting Divine worship ; also respect- 
ing prayer, the ministry, women's preaching, the in • 
fluence of the Divine Spirit on the heart of man, etc. 
Soon after she began to make inquiries into these in- 
teresting subjects, the Crown Prince, her husband, 
came in ; he said he had succeeded in putting off his 
journey into Pomerania for a few hours, and availed 
himself of them to be with us. As he speaks good 
English, dear William Allen had a full opportunity 
with him ; and I proceeded in French to answer the 
inquiries of the Princess, which appeared to proceed 
from a mind under religious exercise, and seeking 
after the Truth. This desire after the knowledge of 
the Truth began when I was at Munich with the King 
her father, and the Crown Prince her brother. She had 
also heard of the religious meetings I then had, which 
were attended by many of the people at court. Here 
again, by the Countess Von der Groben and others 
she hears much of the doctrines held forth by Goss- 
ner, and the seasons of silent retirement that they 
have with him. I drew her attention to the teachings 
of the Divine Spirit, who is ever near the believer in 
Christ, to direct and instruct him, to help us under all 
our infirmities, and to comfort us under all our trials. 
Her spirit was very tender, The conversation then 



242 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

became more general with the Prince, particularly on 
the subject of liberty of conscience. He promised us 
to use his influence to promote this, and he hoped 
that the cruelties exercised by military laws against 
our Friends, or others, would never be enforced 
again. After a time of solemn silence, feeling my 
mind constrained by the power of gospel love, I im- 
parted to them my soul's concern for them, that they 
may so live in the fear of God, and maintair^ the faith 
In our Lord Jesus Christ, that after witnessing ihe, bless- 
ing of preservation from the many snares and tempta- 
tions attending their high stations of life, they may, 
through the redeeming love and mercy of God in 
Christ Jesus, become heirs of His everlasting salvation. 
"On parting the Prince said that he regretted he 
could not be longer with us ; that the King, his father, 
regretted also that his bodily indisposition prevented 
him from seeing us, remembering the visit that we 
both had made him when he was in London, and that 
he would not fail to impart to him what ive had said, 
especially on the subject of liberty of conscience and 
the severity of the military laws, which-, though not 
enforced at present, yet are not repealed. We told the 
Prince and his Princess, that they must expect them- 
selves to have tribulations, If they were sincere In 
their desires to live a godly life In Christ Jesus; for 
if a man will please the world he is at enmity with 
God ; further, we told them that, if they were true In 
their desires to be found followers of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, they must not stumble at the cross, but follow 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 243 

Him in the path of self denial. We parted from them 
in Christian affection." * 

Halle. "This evening the Lord sent us comfort, 
blessed be His name ! by a visit from F. Tholuck, 
who is one of the professors at the University here, 
but a man of a totally different spirit from the general- 
ity of them ; he is a full believer in the dear Re- 
deemer, in all His ofificeSj according to all the great 
truths revealed to us by Divine inspiration, and con- 
tained in the Holy Scriptures. In opposition to his 
fellow professors, he teaches these faithfully, in his 
chair as a professor, and from the pulpit also as a 
minister of Christ, and he adorns his doctrine by a 
consistent life. He is well versed in and teaches the 
oriental and many ancient languages ; but, so far from 
assuming anything because of his attainments, meek- 
ness and humility are his covering. He has an arduous 
path to tread, but the Lord supports him amidst his 
numerous difficulties ; his enemies, like those of 
Daniel formerly, xan find no occasion against him, 
save concerning the law of his God. He has from two to 
three hundred young men, steady attenders at his 
lectures at the University. He has the consolation 
to hope that every year from thirty to forty of these 
young men go from the University to various parts of 
Germany, thoroughly established in sound Christian 
truths, giving evidence also that they love the Lord 
Jesus Christ in sincerity." 

Prague. *' We found about six hundred prisoners 
in the prison. They carry on there a variety of trades, 
Even this year, during which the labors of the prison- 



244 STErilEN GRELLET, 

ers have been much interrupted, they think that their 
receipts will exceed the expenses by fifteen thousand 
guilders. These prisoners generally wear heavy irons, 
and are kept under severe discipline. We saw in one 
prison one hundred and fifty women under heavy 
irons also. It is the first time that I have had such 
a painful sight." 

Austria. " We had engaged to take tea this ev^en- 
ing at the Baron D'Escheles', whose residence is four 
miles out of the city, and very near to the palace of 
the Emperor. We expected to be with the baron's 
family only. Great therefore was our surprise when 
we found ourselves in the midst of a numerous com- 
pany, mostly of the nobility, who, it appears, had 
been invited on our account, but entirely unknown to 
us. It was an opportunity that we could not have ob 
tained by efforts of our own, for the police are so 
strict that we could not appoint any public meetings. 
We are well aware, also, that we are most strictly 
watched, for eventhevalet-de place, who is the servant 
that attends upon us at the inn, or who goes out with 
us to show us the way to the places we visit, is an 
emissary of the police ; they contrive to place such 
over every stranger, that all their movements may be 
closely watched. The whole of the company spoke 
French; our communication with one. another was 
therefore without an interpreter, on my part at least ; 
we were for awhile engaged in answering the inquiries 
made by some who collected about us for the pur- 
pose, but after a time way was made for our having a 
full opportunity to proclaim before them all the 



FOURTH VISIT TO EURO PR 245 

glorious gospel of Christ, the King of kings and 
Lord of lords, the Head of the Church and the only 
Saviour; we told them that He only can save from 
sin, and if those who wish to try to enter His 
kingdom by any other way than by Him who is 
the Door are accounted in the Scriptures but thieves 
and robbers, how much more are to be accounted as 
such those who assume the power to open or close 
that door, at their pleasure, to others ! We directed 
them to Christ, who is the Way, the Truth and the 
Life, without whom none can come to the Father; 
finally we commended them to God and to the word 
of His grace, which is able to build us up and to 
give us an inheritance among all them which are 
sanctified. Great seriousness prevailed over the 
whole assembly; the doctrine was new to many of 
them, but the faithful witness in their own hearts 
brought home the conviction that it was the truth 
as it is in Jesus ; therefore no objection was raised by 
any one. Our spirits have magnified the Lord for 
His great goodness in thus making a way for us to pro* 
claim His great name as the only Saviour, in a place 
where we seemed to be hedged in on every side. 

" The next morning the Prince Esterhazy sent his 
travelling carriage to us, as agreed upon ; it is a light 
but very plain vehicle; we had post-horses put to it, 
but we were much surprised when at every station on 
the road where the horses are changed the postmaster 
refused to receive any money; to this effect orders had 
been sent from the Prince, to whom or to his father 
that tract of country as well as the post-horses be- 



246 . STEPHEN GRELLET. 

long. But we were much more surprised when, ar- 
riving at Eisenstadt, where we expected to find a 
village only, and where the Prince had told us we 
should find some kind of shelter and plain simple 
food, we were driven to the Prince's chateau, a spacious 
palace, and his steward, to whom information had 
been sent of our coming, was waiting for us and 
had dinner prepared. At first we thought that surely 
there must be some mistake ; but the steward, to 
remove every such apprehension, showed us the 
directions he had from the Prince to have us accom- 
modated in the palace, and also to facilitate our going 
to different villages or places that we might wish to 
visit, and to supply us with horses for the purpose 
out of his stables." 

Munich. " We were comforted with the young 
Baron Freyberg and his tender spirited wife. They 
appear sincere in their desire to serve the Lord. One 
of the King's ministers had been twice with us. He 
is one of those that I mingled with during my former 
visits here, and who continue to evince a love for the 
truth. The Prince Oettingen Wallenstein came this 
evening to our inn, where it was thought we might 
be more privately with each other than at his palace. 
We spent about three hours together. His Christian 
protection of those Roman Catholics who have seen 
the errors of popery shelters them greatly from the 
persecutions they would otherwise be subjected to. 
Several of their priests and nuns continue to make 
public confession that the Lord Jesus Christ is their 
only hope of salvation, and that they consider and 



FO XJRTE VISIT TO EUROPE. 247 

acknowledge Him as the only Head of the Church ; 
there are also many of the people who turn away 
from popery. The Prince, understanding that we pro- 
posed to visit some of the villages on the Donau- 
Moos marshes, where many persons have been 
convinced of their former errors, has not only en- 
couraged us to go there, but has also sent for the 
Baron Baader, who speaks good English, to accom- 
pany us there and act as our interpreter. Previous to 
our separation, we had with the dear Prince a contriting 
religious season. He was greatly broken in his spirit. 
He hardly knew how to part from us. He took us 
several times in his arms, with tears in his eyes. May 
the Lord strengthen him by His grace, and preserve 
him faithful to His Divine will unto the end ! My 
spirit is reverently bowed with gratitude before God, 
in being now permitted to mingle again with a few 
among the poor, and those who have their dwellings 
in palaces, whom He has rescued from the corrup- 
tions that are in the world, and whom He enables to 
approach His sacred presence with broken hearts and 
contrite spirits." 

Strasburg. " I left on the 14th for Ban de la Roche, 
the former residence of Oberlin, that humble but great 
man, and dignified useful servant of the Lord, whose 
works continue to proclaim his love to God and man. 
I came thirty-four miles to Foudai, w^here resides Le 
Grand, the particular friend of the late Oberlin ; he 
is solicitous that the useful institutions formed by 
him should be conducted on the plan he designed. Le 
Grand has two sons, w^ho with their wives and 



248 STErnEN GRELLET. 

families reside on the same premises with him; they 
carry on an extensive manufactory of a variety of 
tapes ; it was one of the plans of Oberlin to procure 
employment and the means of an honest livelihood to 
the numerous inhabitants of a poor and stony land. 
Immediately after my arrival Le Grand very kindly 
sent messengers to the several villages on these 
mountains, with the information of my intention to 
have a religious meeting with them that afternoon, to 
be held in the central village where Oberlin used to 
reside ; his house there is at present occupied by his 
son-in-law, who has succeeded him as pastor. Ac- 
companied by Le Grand I went there, and was 
much pleased on meeting with faithful Louisa, who 
was the right hand of Oberlin in promoting the re- 
ligious, moral, and literary education of the inhabi- 
tants of those mountains. She is now aged, but still 
active ; every week she takes her walks around the 
villages, visits the schools, the sick and the afflicted, 
imparts religious instruction to the young people, and 
performs her labors of love as needed, and as her way 
for it is open. She has trained several mistresses 
who are engaged in the schools ; she introduced me 
to some of these, whom she calls her fourth genera- 
tion. Oberlln's daughter is a pious woman. Before 
the hour at which the meeting was appointed the 
people were seen running down the rocky mountains, 
and collecting in great numbers ; it reminded me of 
what I saw several times when on the island of Hayti; 
they came from four to eight miles, though the notice 
was so short. The meeting was held in their place 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 249 

of worship ; the word of instruction, comfort and en- 
couragement was given me to preach among them." 

Geneva. " Yesterday and to-day I was engaged in 
visiting the prisons and some valuable and useful in- 
stitutions. One is for old men; great care is bestowed 
on their bodily comforts ; each has his separate, clean 
chamber; everything that might tend to disturb the 
mind of an old man is carefully avoided, and in the 
most tender and gentle way opportunities are watched 
for to bring their minds to Christ, and to stir them up 
to make use of their few remaining days in preparing 
for another life. I had some interesting and satisfac- 
tory religious services in several of these places. 

*' I dined at Mary Ann Vernet's, where various 
branches of their families were present, also her 
widowed daughter, the Baroness de Stael. We had a 
contriting time together. They keenly felt the loss 
of a valuable pious relative, a son of Mary Ann's ; 
but they bear it as Christians. In his attempt to save 
the life of another person from a building that was 
on fire, he himself fell a prey to the devouring element. 
The dear youth had for many years past devoted him- 
self as a nazarite, to serve the Lord, and he died while 
evincing his love to man. I was a good deal with 
him in my previous visit here, and I loved him in 
the truth." 

Pignerol, Piedmont. " I had a solitary but very 
pleasant ride, for my blessed Master was with me; 
my soul was contrited under a grateful sense that He 
has^ in a marvellous manner and in great condescend- 
ing mercy, kept to this day His covenant with me, 



250 STEPHEN' GRELLET. 

though on my part, with shame and confusion, I be- 
held how frequently I have broken niy own covenant 
with my Lord God and Redeemer. He has enabled 
me to renew it this day, and to anoint the altar with 
many tears ; may it prove to be an everlasting 
covenant, never to be broken ! My soul also was 
poured forth before God in supplication for all whom 
I have visited and labored with in the work and love 
of the gospel, in various parts of America and in 
these European nations. The remembrance also of 
the thousands that have been slain on these moun- 
tains and in these valleys for their love to Jesus, and 
their faithfulness to His testimony, has been feelingly 
and solemnly before me. I beheld how many of these 
have joined that innumerable company who have 
come out of many tribulations, and stand now clothed 
in white before the throne of God and the Lamb, 
having harps in their hands. 

*' I met here Colonel Beckwith ; he lost one of his 
legs at the battle of Waterloo, and now endeavors to 
devote his time to acts of benevolence ; this is the 
third winter he has spent among the Waldenses ; he 
has been useful in promoting, and in assisting them 
in the building of schoolhouses, and in having schools 
for the girls separate from the boys. He also en- 
deavors to introduce amomg them the manufacture 
of a variety of articles, the materials of which are of 
small value. 

"I went to most of their villages, and visited 
their schools ; at Bobi I was pleased with one for 
girls; it is conducted by a pious widow, who en- 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 251 

deavors to train up the young plants under her 
charge in the fear of God. I found religious tender- 
ness among the parents and the children in several 
places ; most of their pastors also appear to be con- 
scientiously concerned for the spiritual welfare of 
their flocks. These visits were fatiguing, for I had 
to perform the journeys mostly on foot ; the snow 
was deep ; and the rough paths on the high ground 
being covered with ice rendered walking laborious. 
This was particularly the case in going up the moun- 
tain to Angrone. It is in that valley, and on that 
mountain, that many battles were fought during the 
wars of extermination waged against the Waldenses 
at the instigation of the Papists, whose armies were 
accompanied by the inquisitors. Many of these 
poor unoffending people, who escaped the edge of 
the sword, were burned by the Inquisition." 

France : Brives. " I find my beloved mother in 
a very tender state of mind, green in old age. Her 
heart seems to be full of love to the dear Saviour. 
She appears to be weaned from a dependence on the 
priests or outward observances. Her heart is fixed, 
trusting in the Lord alone. It is rare to meet with 
any one at her advanced age who retains such bright 
mental faculties."* 



^ Three years after this, Stephen Grellet received the affect- 
ing intelligence of the decease of his "beloved and honored 
mother," an event which was communicated to him in a letter 
from his brother Joseph, who, with many of her descendants, 
was present on the peacefully solemn occasion. She was in 
her ninety-fourth year, and it was a great comfort to Stephen 
Grellet to think of her as '^ full of love to the dear Saviour, 



252 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

Paris. " We breakfasted this morning, by invita- 
tion at the Duke de BrogHe's, prime minister here. 
The Duchess's sister, the Baroness de Stael, with 
whom we both have long been acquainted, is here 
also at present. They both are pious women. Guizot 
also, another of the King's ministers, was with us at 
breakfast. I had wished to see him, and thus an op- 
portunity was given me to represent to him the senti- 
ments contained in some of the books used in the 
public schools, which are not in accordance with pure 
Christian doctrine. He promised to attend to this. 
He stated also that he has taken measures to have 
the New Testament introduced in all the public 
schools, for which purpose he has ordered an edition 
of forty thousand copies. He meets with no obstruc- 
tion to it from the bishops, the greatest is from some 



weaned from a dependence upon priests or outward ob- 
servance, with her heart fixed, — trusting in the Lord alone." 
From one of her letters to her son Stephen and his family in 
the United States the following is extracted : — •* What delight 
thy letter gave thy mother, my tenderly beloved son ! After 
many dangers thou art at last restored to thy fireside, to thy 
dear wife and child. What thanks should we render to the 
Lord! I had received thy letter from England. Thou left 
me in great anxiety, but not on my own account, — that troubles 
me the least. But other trials awaited me, and I have needed 
to recall to my mind very often thy tender advice, to bow in 
entire submission to the will of the Lord, and, as thou hast 
lold me, to be fully persuaded that our Crosses and our afflic- 
tions are given us' by the hand of the tenderest Father. Al- 
ways remember me before the Lord, When I call to mind 
thy patience, thy resignation, thy advice, I feel strengthened. 
I wish you, iny dear children, the Lord's blessing. Remember 
aie in His presence and love, as she loves you, your mother. 

Gkellet." 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 253 

of the priests. After he and the Duke had retired to 
go to the Chambers, we had with the two sisters a 
precious opportunity ; they know the language of the 
Spirit. The Duke, wishing to have more time with 
us, pressed us to take a family dinner with him to- 
morrow. In the afternoon we had religious oppor- 
tunities with several persons, both Protestants and 
Roman Catholics." 

Spain. " This morning at eleven o'clock we went, 
as appointed, to the Count D'Ofalia's ; he manifested 
great freedom in conversing with us on subjects of 
benevolence and piety, on the distribution of the 
Scriptures, and the state of religion in Spain, which 
he acknowledges to be very low ; he told us that he 
was yesterday with the King, and spoke of us to him ; 
he informed him also of our intention to visit their 
prisons and other institutions ; the King' directed that 
an order for our admittance to any place we may 
wish to visit should be made out in his own name; 
he also requested that we would furnish him with any 
remarks we may make in these visits. How remark- 
able that the Lord should thus set an open door be- 
fore us, in places where, but a very little while ago 
anarchy prevailed, streams of blood flowed, and the 
prisons were crowded with innocent victims. We arc 
told that, in some parts of this nation, the tyrants in 
power, after putting some of their victims to a cruel 
death, made out bills of the expenses attending the 
execution, which they obliged the mournful widows 
to pay ! 

" We visited several of their prisons, the orphan and 



254 STEPHEN GRELLET. 

poorhouse, also the foundling hospital, which is a 
large establishment ; they admit yearly from eleven to 
twelve hundred children. 

" In the afternoon we had a meeting at Sir Strat- 
ford Canning's, with his family and a few others. 

They appeared to appreciate the privilege of wait- 
ing on and worshipping the Lord. In the evening, 
our meeting at the American ambassador's was pretty 
numerously attended. A number of Spaniards were 
there ; some we had not seen before ; as they all 
understood French, I needed not the help of an in- 
terpreter. Dear Allen attempts at times to speak in 
French also. Some of these services are attended 
with deep exercise. How wonderfully adapted are 
the great and important truths of the gospel to every 
condition of man ! We had a solemn meeting. Several 
parted from us under much seriousness. 

" We were occupied great part of the last two days 
in preparing a report, to be laid before the King, of 
our visits to the prisons and other institutions : the 
state in which we find them, the abuses which exist, 
the causes which lead to the commission of many 
crimes, and the remedy which we submit for con- 
sideration." 

" We went to the palace about the time appointed ; 
the Duke of Aragon received us with much civility; 
they had even removed the military that almost al- 
ways stand about the palace. The Duke brought us 
up the great staircase into a spacious hall, where the 
King's immediate attendants were in waiting. The 
Chamberlain soon brought us into what appeared to 



FOURTH VISIT TO EUROPE. 255 

be the court room; we saw nobody at first, but very 
soon a plainly dressed person and a lady came towards 
us, holding- a little girl by the hands between them. 
We did not think they were the King and Queen, till 
I observed her features, which reminded me of a 
portrait I had seen of her, and I queried, * Is it 
the Queen before whom we stand ?' * Yes,' she re- 
plied, ' and this is the King, and here is our young 
Princess,* our eldest, two and a half years old.' We 
soon explained the reason of our embarrassment, 
for we did not expect that the King was well enough 
to be out of his chamber, and feared that his standing 
would be too great an exertion for him ; but they de- 
clined sitting down. After some remarks respecting 
our visits to their public institutions, we answered 
their inquiries on several subjects relating thereto, in 
which the Queen took part with interest. This led to 
subjects of a religious nature, and an inquiry into 
our Christian testimonies and practices ; under a sense 
of the Lord's power and love, I uncovered my head 
and proclaimed to them, as the Lord through His 
Spirit gave me, the word of reconciliation, of life and 
salvation through faith in Christ. I felt much for the 
King under the severe trials that have attended him, 
and the remarkable manner in which his life was pre- 
served within the last few months, whilst from his 
illness he was in a state of stupor, and the prevailing 
party urged the physician to have the post mortem ex- 
amination made, though he protested he was not 
dead; it was at that very juncture that the Queen's 

* The present ex-Queen of Spain, Isabella 11. 



2oG STEPHEN GRELLET. 

party obtained the ascendancy and the King's life was 
preserved. In tlie course of my communication I 
alluded to Nebuchadnezzar, and remarked that the 
King had, like him, been driven out of his Kingdom 
(having been sent a prisoner to France by Buona- 
parte), had endured many afflictions and humiliations, 
but now the Lord had restored his kingdom, and had 
instructed him to know that it is by Him that kings 
reign and princes ought to decree justice. As I went 
on, the King queried, ' Who is this King Nebuchad- 
nezzar?' The Queen at once explained to him in 
what part of the Scriptures he would find it. Then I 
expressed my earnest desire that, like him, he may 
honor the Most High, by breaking off his sins by 
righteousness, and his iniquities by showing mercy to 
the poor, with Christian faith and confidence asking 
of God to give him wisdom and knowledge, to go out 
and come in befdre the people so as to glorify His 
name. We also entreated the King to mark the last 
years of his reign by acts of clemency and of piety, 
and the noble deed of giving to his subjects full 
liberty of conscience, not doubting that they would 
thus be crowned with the Lord's blessing, and that, 
finally, his earthly crown would be exchanged for a 
heavenly one. Both the King and the Queen were 
serious, and on parting gave evidence of kind feelings 
towards us. They both speak good French ; there- 
fore, all that was communicated was in that language ; 
none were present except them and ourselves. 

** From the palace we went to dine at Sir Stratford 
Canning's ; several persons came in afterwards, with 
whom we had a time of religious edification. Oh 



POtlRTH VISIT TO EUROPE. • %1 

what a consolation thuj to find among those who oc- 
cupy high stations in Hfe a few who walk in the lowly 
path that Christianity calls us into. We took an 
affectionate farewell of this interesting family." 

It must be understood that the foregoing are merely 
selections from the Journal of Mr. Grellet, and only 
intended to serve as specimens of unceasing labors 
day by day in these various countries, and which were 
continued for the space of three years. Everywhere 
was he faithfully seeking to follow the Spirit as his 
Guide. The selections have not included his refer- 
ences to natural scenery, which are more numerous 
and glowing than at an earlier period. Otherwise 
the labors thus unremitted were like those that had 
gone before. His was a mission to sufferers. It was 
his to carry everywhere the spirit of Jesus, who 
carried Himself with lowliness to all men. It was his 
everywhere to make lighter the heavy bonds of pris- 
oners; to impart to the little children in foundling 
hospitals and poorhouses the elementary truths of 
that gospel he loved ; to bear witness among rulers 
and princes on behalf, of the benevolent sentiments 
which Christianity should inspire ; to encourage faith- 
ful servants of Christ, and to assist in lodging that 
living seed of truth in the heart of humanity, whose 
blossoming and fruits are now preparing a way for 
the coming of the Lord. 

The last meeting Stephen Grellet attended is de- 
scribed. It was in London, at Devonshire House, 
during the Yearly Meeting ; when he had an oppor- 
tunity fully to relieve his mind, and his communica- 
tion was very remarkable, rising brighter and brighter 



258 STEPItEK GRELLET. 

towards the close ; Elizabeth J. Fry followed in sup- 
plication, and there was a very solemn feeling over 
the meeting. Afterwards, in the concluding sitting 
of the Meeting, "when the business was over, he 
again rose and delivered a parting exhortation, which 
was remarkably solemn and impressive ; to some he 
addressed the language of warning, and he had sweet 
encouragement for the aged and for tender, visited 
minds; and in the silence at the close there was a deep 
feeling of solemnity, and the Great Head of the 
Church, having granted some precious seasons, was 
pleased to confirm the faith of His servants in Him." 
It is added, sorrowfully, by William Allen : *' Dear 
Stephen Grellet was with us for the last time; he 
spoke in a remarkable manner; it was indeed a faith- 
ful communication. Several Friends were with us at 
our lodgings, and before we separated we felt the 
drawings of the Father's love, and, after a time of 
silence, Stephen knelt in supplication. It was a 
favored opportunity. We afterwards walked to 
Bishopsgate street, to John Hustler's lodgings, and 
then I took a leave of him." 

Mr. Grellet arrived at Burlington, New Jersey, in 
July, 1834. He had travelled during this last Eu- 
ropean journey above twenty-eight thousand miles. 
His first act was to unite with his wife and daughter 
in ascribing thanksgiving and praise to the Lord. 
After this William Allen writes : " I had a sweet 
letter from dear Grellet since he reached home ; he is 
in the full enjoyment of his dear Master's peace, and 
his heart is filled with love to all those among whom 
he has labored." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE CLOSING YEARS. 

IT was the desire of Dr. Thomas Chalmers that the 
seventh decade of his years should form the sab- 
bath of his life. The prayer was granted. In Stephen 
Grellet's history there were such two sabbatic periods ; 
and in his case as in that of Chalmers there was the 
further fulfilment of the promise, " they shall bring 
forth fruit in old age." These twenty years were passed 
by him at Burlington, New Jersey. A newspaper 
of that place recorded of him after his decease : " As 
a citizen among us we may safely quote the Scrip- 
ture language of St. Paul, * ye are witnesses how 
holily, justly, and unblameably he behaved himself 
among you.' " The paper spoke also of his " gentle, 
kindly, true heartedness," of his " shining foosteps," 
and of the "unmistakable halo of good to be felt 
about him." Another record bears witness of his 
" cheerfulness blended with a quiet unassuming 
dignity," of his " courteousness and affability ;" "his 
look was love, his salutation peace." The Lord has 
often granted to not a few of His ministers to preach 
in their last years by their lives, when their voice 
was no longer heard as heretofore. 

Thus those last twenty years were passed. His 

(259) 



260 



THE CLOSING YEARS. 



mind continually dwelt in perfect peace. He was 
increasingly alive to all the beauties and enjoyments 
of life ; but his aspect was so serene, his demeanor 
so tranquil, his tones so affectionate, as to bespeak 
the habitual consciousness of the Divine presence. 
He knew vv^hat suffering was, for a painful malady 
was upon him. But he remarked : *' My Saviour is 
my joy, the- rock of my strength, my song, my 
hope for ever and ever. He who gives strength to 
suffer gives love also to endure." " By night and 
by day my dear Redeemer and His Spirit are near 
me. . In my sleep, in my waking hours, the thoughts 
of my heart are towards the Lord, and sweet and 
refreshing." He spoke also of his intercessions in 
the night seasons for those he loved, and whom his 
sixty years' ministry had embraced, and which were 
often " pleasanter than even sleep." 

During most of these twenty years he regularly 
attended the Burlington meeting on the Lord's Day ; 
he frequently travelled far to be present at the Friends' 
Yearly Meetings in different Northern States ; he 
kept up an extensive correspondence with Friends in 
Europe, and as opportunity offered engaged in wit- 
nessing for the Lord Jesus in every Christian com- 
munion. Years after, men recalled his \vise and 
powerful words as he preached on such passages as 
" Joy in believing," "Where is your faith?" "I am 
ready to be offered," and " Blessed be God, even the 
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mer- 
cies and the God of all comfort; who. comforteth us 
in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort 



STEPHEN GRELLET. 261 

them which are in any trouble by the comfort where- 
with we are comforted of God." The old charm of 
sympathy, tenderness, reality and '' vitality " was with 
him to the last. Men also remind themselves to this 
day of his public prayers, so humble, benevolent and 
fervent. 

The end came in the autumn of 1855. As it ap- 
proached, he said with a radiant smile : " My heart 
and my strength faileth, but God is the strength of 
my heart, and my portion for ever." There was severe 
pain ; but the language of heart and lip was that of 
Him to whom his eye was ever turned, " Not my will 
but Thine be done." He presented the petition that 
the pain might be relieved before the final emergency. 
The prayer was answered ; the pain ceased. In full 
possession of his faculties, and with the light and 
peace on his face of one who was resting in cloudless 
communion with his Saviour, and without " tasting 
death," his spirit passed away to join the glorified 
companies of the immortals. 



A distinguished statesman, himself a Friend, spoke 
on one occasion of " the small and inconsiderable sect 
of which I am a member." Had all larger sects 
been as anxious as that of the Quakers to do justly, 
and to make that their end which was the end of 
Christ's work and ministry — the relieving of the 
sufferings, and the perfection of humanity, a very 
'different world should we have had to live in to-day. 
' If now the Society of Friends has ceased to augment 



262 THE CLOSING YEARS. 

in numbers, let them know that not only have most 
of the humane principles they have advocated 
triumphed, but many also of their customs have been 
adopted by other evangelical Protestants. Once they 
stood almost alone in their testimony against an ex- 
clusive ministerial caste in the Church. Now their 
principle of recognizing the preaching gifts of lay- 
men is all but universally adopted. The danger at 
present is that of not guarding, as they have done, 
the liberty of prophesying. But in these days lay 
evangelists are ungrudgingly honored, and among 
Chistians in the two hemispheres they are often held 
to be among the ablest preachers of the gospel. Further 
than this, that recognition of the public service of 
woman in the furtherance of the welfare of men, which 
once was almost peculiar to Friends, is now a mark 
of the Christian community generally. The incon- 
sistent sneer of worldly persons who can listen with 
approval to the public and solo singing of women, 
and to their favorite actresses, is no longer allowed to 
support an objection to the public advocacy of 
women on behalf of what is pure and merciful. 
There was a time when " silent waiting on the Lord" 
was a custom almost exclusively confined to the 
Friends. Such silent seasons for individual petitions, 
and for that " contriting " and ** tendering " which 
Stephen Grellet counted the sign above all of the 
Spirit's presence, are now far from unusual in Chris- 
tian assemblies. It may be added, the political pur- 
pose of the Friends to take part in making straight the 
crooked ways of the world, and making plain its 



STEPHEN GRELLET. 263 

rough places, is, in these last years, much more the 
mark than formerly of devout persons. It is pleasant 
to say these things. If the witnesses clothed in sack- 
cloth for many years have finished their testimony, it 
is because the truths have been accepted for which 
they suffered. 

May the author of this Life of Stephen Grellet be 
permitted to record that to him, amidst pastoral and 
public duties, it has been with pleasant memories he 
has followed the course of this great and remarkable 
man. It was his privilege to stand by the side of 
Friends of Reading for a few years, and in Leeds for 
ten years, in services on behalf of popular education, 
abolition of slavery, and other public questions. 
Frequently has he united with them elsewhere in the 
course of a ministry of more than thirty years. He 
recalls with a tender admiration the remembrance of 
their honorableness, wisdom, firmness, large minded- 
ness, and their unvarying courtesy and deference to 
the opinions of others. It is grateful to him to re- 
mind this generation of men to whom this country 
and the world are under such abiding obligations, 
** inconsiderable " though they may esteem themselves. 

One supreme principle of the Friends remains to be 
more, and more maintained and developed. That is, 
as the Life and Mission of Stephen Grellet teach, 
that the Spirit of Christ is the silent, patient, inspiring 
and ever guiding Presence among men, and is the 
abiding witness for Jesus in a world on which the 
cross of Calvary has been lifted up. In these last 
days, when the faithful application of the teaching of 



264 THE CLOSING YEARS. 

holy Scripture to the new conditions of society is 
perplexing and difficult, the Spirit will guide and 
counsel as we supremely aim and pray to be in com- 
plete subjection to His perpetual motions. Then we 
shall have help wisely to work, and patiently to wait, 
for the final setting up of Christ's kingdom among 
men. 

" Let us toil on ; the work we have behind us, 

Though incomplete, God's hand will yet embalm, 
And use it some way ; and the news will find us 
In heaven above, and sweeten endless calm." 



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